Sunday 2 November 2008

Camera critters: the great escape


Some time in mid-September, I was in Fournes irrigating our orange trees, a task now being accomplished automatically by nature itself. The field snails had woken up from their summer slumber as the irrigation taps were being turned on. There were hundreds of them walking about; I counted 100 snails in my plastic bag when I turned them into a boiling pot of water (really, they are delicious if you know how to treat and cook them).

We don't usually eat the small ones. Maybe this one didn't catch my attention; it escaped from the bag and climbed up the kitchen curtain. There it curled up and hibernated until I saw it only a few days ago.

"Don't worry", I comforted it, "you're not ready for the cauldron, not just yet anyway", I said to it as I threw it into the garden.

15 comments:

  1. Poor baby! If it only knew!

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  2. Maria, gotta hand it to ya, you have the most unique critters to post on the weekend. I managed to overcome the eeuww factor and read your cooking lesson on Organically Cooked--it is so exotic as to be fascinating.
    Also, your curtains are pretty and the electric plug thing is a practical shape.

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  3. wow. snail houdini. :)

    (i do love eating snails though.) :)

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  4. Cute! Looks like a pretty shell there. :-) I guess that little snail got lucky.

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  5. Hello Mediterranean Kiwi!!!! Is my first visit in your blog. Is excellent! I am half Xaniotis because my wife has born in Xania near dikastiria in Renieri str. In one branch's of her family belong the "spitikon".
    Last spring fter a long time 20 years we came in Xania for a week. Was a grate happy surprise! Lucky to live there!

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  6. Survivor's amnesty/pardon.

    The pictures of Bramble were taken thirty years ago - Meri is pregnant with our first.

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  7. Cool! You actually have edible snails just outside your house! Here in Manila, they're already considered delicacies because they're not readily available in markets. I don't even know what provinces farm them, but some Filipino restaurants in Manila always have it on their menu.

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  8. The Rambo Snail! :-)

    Χοχλιοί Μπουμπουριστοί!!!...I did not like it but hey, give it a couple of weeks of starvation and i might reconsider :-D :-D :-D

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  9. Well that's an interesting tiny fellow! You aren't French are you? The French love eating snails and the Dutch are more and more interested in snails as food too.

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  10. aloha from Honolulu, Hawaii.

    I tried to post a comment a few minutes ago, but got blocked because my "URL contained illegal characters." Don't know what that means.

    Anyway, the closest to Greece I have been is Croatia in 1990.

    These days we travel to Asia -- Korea, Japan, etc.

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  11. I think I prefer cutting nails to cooking snails!

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  12. Aloha!
    Reminds me of that story about the beach covered in starfish: "It matters to THIS one."
    Best Wishes from my Island to Yours!

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  13. Do they eat snails in Crete?

    I quite like them myself, although as a rule Australians are not keen!

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