These mollusks got their name due to the fact that they love to eat grape leaves, while doing him considerable harm. In nature, grape snails can grow up to 9 cm, and at home, with good care, they will become even larger. They began to eat these mollusks as food in antiquity - it was a healthy, tasty and cheap dish accessible to everyone.
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Grape snails - breeding at home
Grape snails are bred for various purposes. Some hold them as undemanding pets, which are interesting to watch. Others seek to grow as many shellfish as possible in order to eat them.
Grape Snail Content at Home
Before you bring home your first snails, you need to equip a house for them. A tight box or glass jar will not work. Although snails are small, they need relative space for a normal life.
- It is best to use an aquarium for fish, a terrarium or a sufficiently large capacity of plexiglass.
- To create conditions for snails that are relatively close to natural conditions, soil should be put at the bottom of the house. You can use sand, prepared soil for growing seedlings, purchased in a store, or just land taken from your site. In the latter case, it will have to be sanitized beforehand by baking on a baking sheet in the oven, or by spilling it with a potassium permanganate solution. This is done in order not to bring various pests into the house along with the soil.
- On the ground, you can put leaves, twigs.Snails will be happy to crawl over them, and some will feast on them. From time to time, wilted leaves will have to be changed.
- Large enough stones and woody branches - no place in the house. If the snails begin to crawl over them, they will leave their mucus on them, from which it will be difficult to clear them.
- In addition, in the house you can make a "pool" for snails. It should be shallow - for example, it is good to pour some water in a saucer. Snails do not swim, but in the warm season they will enjoy using such a "pool".
Snail Care Nuances
Since grape snails are southern inhabitants, with the onset of autumn, they can fall asleep before spring. This will happen if the house for snails is in a cold room. If you continue to keep them in a warm room, the mollusks will lead a normal life.
When transferred to an unheated room, snails burrow into the ground, waiting for the cold. They cover the "entrance" to the sink with a shutter, leaving only a small slit for air access. When the air temperature rises, they return to their usual active life.
Snails can be called omnivores. They will eat the leaves of plantain and dandelion, chopped vegetables and fruits. In winter, you can buy frozen vegetables, thaw them and feed them to your pets. Feed is added as needed and after a while removed so that it does not deteriorate.
In nature, snails with pleasure crawl along dewy grass and leaves wet from rain. It is worth starting a spray gun at home and spraying the house and its inhabitants from the inside.
Please note that snails become especially active in cool, wet weather.
How does a grape snail breed
Grape snails are hermaphrodites. You can purchase 2 to 3 pieces and get numerous offspring. Before breeding begins, it is recommended to place the snails for several months in a cold room. Upon returning the house to warm grape snails decide that spring has come and it is time to acquire offspring.
Those who are used to watching their pets notice that snails at this time begin to move slower, raise the front of the body.
Snail eggs are laid in the ground, therefore (it is important to repeat this again) there should not be pests and pathogens in it.
After the eggs are laid, the snails themselves are transplanted to another dwelling. Four weeks later, four babies will be born, and after another 1.5 months they will grow up, after which parents can be returned to their place.
Small snails are fed with mashed vegetables and fruits, complex mineral top dressing. Thus, the cultivation of grape snails is a fascinating and uncomplicated task.
Useful properties of snails
Grape snails are used to prepare various dishes, including diet ones. Their meat does not cause allergies, it is tasty, very nutritious, saturated with proteins, vitamins and minerals.
In addition, the composition of meat includes substances such as collagen and elastin. You can ask any cosmetologist - they are indispensable for maintaining youth and skin tone.
And the clam meat contains substances that can inhibit the growth and reproduction of harmful bacteria. In this they are akin to modern antibiotics. Under their action, inflammatory processes subside, recovery comes faster.
The mucus secreted by snails also has the same beneficial properties. It is part of many cosmetics.
Preparing snails for cooking
Of course, grape snails will get on the table only if they are bred specifically for cooking, that is, in the right amount. For example, to indulge in Burgundian home-made snails, about 100 clams will be required.
Pets can remain so, and for culinary delights in stores it’s easy to buy frozen snails.
But suppose you have your own “mini-farm” for breeding mollusks.The recipes for making grape snails are simple.
Burgundy Snail Recipe
For snail meat to be especially tasty, for 10 days, the clams are placed in a special container, and as food they are offered flour, which is mixed with bran and aromatic seasonings.
Then the snails are boiled for several minutes, poured with cold water, and when they cool, they are removed from the sink with a toothpick or pin.
Butter (about 100 g) is softened, combined with finely chopped parsley, a pinch of ground nutmeg and salt.
The dish is prepared in portions, for which you need to take small tins. At the bottom they put snail meat, and on top - oil with seasonings. Sprinkle with grated cheese and bake in the oven for 9 to 10 minutes.
This dish goes well with dry white wine.
Italian snails
Snail meat will need about half a kilo. And you will also need a glass of red wine, salt and seasonings - mint, basil, marjoram. And it is better to use them not in a dry form, but to buy fresh leaves. You can take sunflower oil, odorless, but it is better to give preference to olive.
- The snails are fried in oil, then poured with wine, salt and finely chopped greens are added.
- On the smallest fire, the dish needs to be cooked for about 10 minutes.
- Serving on the table, the snails are watered with the very sauce in which they were stewed.
Lightly toasted bread with garlic is well suited to this dish.
If you are going to cook snails often - it makes sense to purchase a special device in order to extract mollusks from shells. It was invented in France and resembles a pin of a special shape.
Thus, grape snails can be interesting pets. And if desired, it is easy to prepare delicious dishes from them. Also, this type of mollusk is widely used in cosmetology in the manufacture of creams, masks, tonics and scrubs. The beneficial substances that make up their skin restore beauty and health.
