((PKG)) SNAIL FARMING
((TRT: 08:29))
((Topic Banner: Snail Farming))
((Reporter/Camera: Aaron Fedor))
((Producer: Kathleen McLaughlin))
((Editor: Kyle Dubiel))
((Map: Cutchogue, New York; New York City, New York))
((Main characters: 2 female; 2 male))
((NATS))
((Angela Zeny
Executive Sous Chef, Frenchette))
So, in the eggs themselves are just 50/50, butter, cream and two farm eggs. The sauce itself is just very simple. So, we do a simply seasoned seven to eight escargots out of shell, a little bit of salt and pepper. Just throw them right in the pan with a little bit of garlic, parsley and butter.
((NATS))
((Angela Zeny
Executive Sous Chef, Frenchette))
This dish is pretty popular. We pretty much get almost, almost every table gets one.
((MUSIC))
((Taylor Knapp
Owner, Peconic Escargot))
The snail farming came about, just a realization that there was a gap in the market.
((Taylor Knapp
Owner, Peconic Escargot))
I was a chef full time back in 2013 and wanted to put snails on my menu. And at the time, I was taking a lot of care to source my ingredients locally and ethically and responsibly and make sure they were, you know, the best that they could possibly be. And I wanted to do a snail dish, an escargot dish. And so, I started looking to see if I could find some snails for this dish and all I could find were canned or frozen snails. All of it, canned and frozen were both coming from Europe or Asia. So, I couldn't even find a canned product from the US. And I said, “That can't be right.” So, the search kind of took me, you know, I reached out to a bunch of chef friends. Do you guys know of anyone, you know, doing this, raising snails in the US where, you know, where can I get fresh escargot? I don't want to use a canned product. I don't want to use a frozen product. That doesn't make any sense. And I exhausted all my sources and realized there was no one doing this here in this country.
And so, I had asked another chef friend, you know, “Do you know of anyone in the US raising, you know, raising these snails?” And he jokingly said, “No you should, you should do it yourself. You should, you know, build a snail farm”.
((NATS: Taylor Knapp))
So, this is our Peconic escargot. All right, it's a peconic escargot raised in Cutchogue, served with a little bit of the snail caviar. There’s a little bit of bourguignon butter, parsnip puree, onion jam and some brioche. And I would just recommend, kind of, squeezing that lemon over the top. All right? Enjoy.
((Taylor Knapp
Owner, Peconic Escargot))
We are the only USDA [US Department of Agriculture] certified snail farm in the country. We got our approval from them in 2015 and we work closely with them on all the things that keep the local agriculture safe because they are an invasive pest that can do a lot of damage to, you know, the surrounding agriculture.
And once we had the snails, it was a whole new process of figuring out how to raise them inside of a greenhouse. There's very little information already on just raising snails in general. A lot of the farms in Europe aren't interested in talking necessarily about their techniques and methods. There's really no one here in the US doing it. So, we kind of had to figure it out as we went.
((NATS: Taylor Knapp))
Nice.
((Taylor Knapp
Owner, Peconic Escargot))
The greenhouse, right now we probably have about 70,000 snails in there. It kind of maxes out around 100,000. These are the petit gris escargot, Cornu aspersum, little grey snail. This is what we raise here at Peconic Escargot. The flavor of the snails is affected depending on what you feed them. And for that reason, we're very careful with what we're finishing them on because we know it's going to become a prominent flavor profile in the finished product. So, we're literally, kind of, the last two weeks of their life, seasoning them from the inside out. But more often than not, it's herbs that would be more palatable to a human, you know, interest. So, things like basil, parsley, tarragon, mint.
((NATS))
((Taylor Knapp
Owner, Peconic Escargot))
So, they'll eat this entire, you know, pan of greenery until it's gone. And they only eat. They don't drink water.
((Photos Courtesy: Taylor Knapp))
((Taylor Knapp
Owner, Peconic Escargot))
So, all the water that they bring in is just absorbed through their skin, which is why it's really important
((end courtesy))
to keep them misted with water. So, the humidity inside the greenhouse is very important, almost on a daily basis
((Taylor Knapp
Owner, Peconic Escargot))
certainly…through the summer, we're coming in here and we're spraying them down with water. They’re voracious eaters, which is why, you know, if they got out into the wild, they can be so dangerous. They'll, you know, eat entire fields of plants in a matter of days.
((Taylor Knapp
Owner, Peconic Escargot))
So, this would be an example of our, of what we'd call like a nursery pen. These are smaller snails. These are like one to two months old. And they just kind of need a different sort of feed. So, instead of all the greens, we supplement with greens but they really just need more protein and more calcium than a snail that's a little bit farther along in the development process. A lot of this was, you know, a shot in the dark for a while.
((NATS))
((Adam Shepard
Executive Chef, Gage & Tollner))
This dish we’re preparing today is Peconic snails. We’re making with a garlic cream, parsley puree, parsley oil, pea shoots and the snail caviar. It’s like that they’re local and fresh. I mean, our only really option is the canned, industrial-produced, French imported snails. It’s the same as it is everywhere.
((NATS))
((Taylor Knapp
Owner, Peconic Escargot))
So, these white little pearls is snail eggs, and then, or roe. We would then take these, pull them out, rinse them off very well, and then cure them in salt, and that would be what we'd pack as our snail caviar.
((Taylor Knapp
Owner, Peconic Escargot))
It's a really unique product. They're bright white pearls and you can kind of roll them around your mouth a little bit like tapioca. And when they do burst and pop, they're salty because we've cured them. But they also have the most amazing flavor of mushroom and earth, carrots. You get a lot of herbs. So, it's kind of almost the exact opposite of seafood caviar.
((MUSIC))
((NATS: Woman)
Wow. Wow.
((Taylor Knapp
Owner, Peconic Escargot))
Getting people to try snails for the first time is a big, you know, part of our business because we are living in America and it's not something that people have been eating here for years and years like they have in other countries.
((Taylor Knapp
Owner, Peconic Escargot))
I have made the switch from full time chef to full time farmer. I still do some cooking at our pop-up, PAWPAW. But most of my time is spent with the snails and it has been very relaxing. The kitchen is a stressful, hot, chaotic place. And so, to kind of go from that to a very quiet greenhouse in the country with, you know, just me and the snails that aren't making any noises, it's been, it's been wonderful.
((MUSIC))
((Taylor Knapp
Owner, Peconic Escargot))
What I love about snail farming, I think, is seeing the entire process. Being full time chef, I was only kind of catching the product and its end-stage, the very end of it where, you know, it was coming to me, maybe, from a farmer. And I was, you know, preparing it and sending it out to be eaten. With this, you know, you're literally seeing life, you know, being born. You're seeing these snails hatching and growing and getting bigger. You're taking care of them. You're making sure they're healthy and they're happy. And then you're creating a product, you know, really quality, something that you can, you know, that I'm proud of. And then, kind of, passing it off along to the chef.
((MUSIC))