The Good Life France Magazine Summer 2018 | Page 85

Success Snail farming

It didn’t take long for the locals to discover that despite being British, Mike’s snail farm is one of the best. “Yes, they did think it was crazy that a Brit was growing one of the most French things you could possibly get!” he laughs “I think they came first for the curiosity factor but now they come for the taste”.

As a youngster, often relocating with his soldier father, he loved spending time in army kitchens and learned to cook. His biggest success has been to develop “heat and serve” snail dishes and now offers 29 different recipes ranging from the classic classic snails in garlic butter that started him on this route, to snail sausages, smoked snails with goats’ cheese and fig, snails with Roquefort and walnut butter in a wafer case

and his “tikka masala snails” and more. His reputation and his clientele have grown and the little shop at the farm has daily queues.

He also supplies restaurants and says he was once “flabbergasted to find Chef Steven Raymon of the Michelin star Rouge Barr restaurant in Lille in my shop” The chef bought 3000 snails! This British farmer who’s changing the taste of snails in France is “cook, farmer, recipe developer, salesman, book keeper, negotiator and a whole lot more… no two days are ever the same and you have to expect the unexpected”.

Details of the farm and shop address and opening times: https://www.facebook.com/escargotsfermiers/