Snailing expedition~

It is Memorial day today. Putting together a visual proposal for a multi-disciplinary art/sci project to help the oceans. And organizing my house...on May 16 I roamed Alberta St. during their 10th annual Art Hop. All sorts of creative booths and exhibits lining the street. For 5 hours I discussed snails, slugs, agriculture, the environment, art. Ryan of Pixelgrain.org took a fabulous bl/wh polaroid portrait of me. I gave him a snail shell full of tiny succulents. It is starting to heat up here in Portland. I love the sun. And soon under the moon, we will be embarking on a snailing expedition. Bicycling from garden to garden to collect garden mollusks for a future feast. I hope you can join us~

slug skins...

Finally getting somewhere with the slugs. Past the puree and disguise method, I tried skinning and scraping out the insides. Marinating in soy and sesame oil. Then grilled at a wonderful good-bye party to "Coraline" crew friend, Jan. He was back to Germany for a bit. He and Suzanne sent me a pic of an Egyptian slug circa 1600.



The slime is quite a challenge. I think it might be useful for some medical or topical purpose. I wonder if it can be sterilized and used as some sort of lubricant. I tried to hold them in my hands after boiling and they just slip right out. They are completely sheathed in slime. I know it isn't appetizing to think of, but those of you who have ever scaled a fish or slaughtered an animal for a meal (that is the only reason!) can attest to the need to adjust to the process. All of us who have been vegetarian for years know that it is hard to deal with the killing.

I got teary over a slug yesterday. It was about 5" long. I found it riding my bike to tango the other night. I could see it from 40 feet away! On the sidewalk of a closed road for paving. I had a container with me. Somehow I knew I'd find one. It laid eggs in its container...I think that made me sad to know it was trying to reproduce. I attributed all the emotions of nesting to this captive. And who am I to know. He/she seemed a bit limp from the labor. Again, I can't quite help how much I felt for that slug.


Back to the slime. Maybe I'll attach scrubbies to the tips of gloves.
Grilled on the bbq was delicious. My friends actually were asking to try the little crispy skins. They were kind of sweet and one of the really charred ones (almost over cooked them) tasted like bacon. It sent me back to bacon days.
tomorrow I'll try some snails and slugs with wakame. The recipe is coming to me. Better sleep on it~

French American School

On Saturday, I watched Pendulum Dance Theatre's anniversary performance, "Nine." (www.pendulumdancetheatre.org). It was at the French American School where they train, but I admit, their skill and choreography needs to find larger venues too.
I took some aerial acrobat classes last year with Pendulum. I loved climbing the silks and learning to trust myself at a height that is out of my comfort zone. Wrapping teh fabric around yourslef and then saying, "really, I can just let go? Just let go?" and voila, you drop to get caught by the careful weave you wove. All the students and instructors are wonderful, so seeing them perform this Saturday was a great reunion. And now I am working with Suzanne Kenney, artistic director and founder, to realize a performance and exhibit fusing art, science, and activism for the oceans and all life on Earth. It is a big endeavor. I can't get it out of my head, though. So we go for it!

But THE exciting moment for Miss Snail Pail was when we were heading out of the event. I looked on the sidewalk and what should I see, 2 snails!! here in Portland the snails are much less common than slugs (so far). it was exhilarating. next thing I knew, my friend Heidi had handed me a thermos. The slugs were huge. The snails had years on them. Those shells are enormous and timely to make! I couldn't believe how thrilled I was. It was like running to hug an old friend. I know, I am going to eat them, but i can still welcome them for having been gone so long.
Jody Hughes (www.jodyhughes.com/press.html) and Heidi Sowa joined in the hunt. There is something thrilling about encountering something that cannot be taken for granted, like searching for mushrooms. Not a lot of fun when not finding them. But once you are in the thick of a fungi field, big smiles! same sort of thing with snails and slugs.

Now they are feasting on greens and organic grains. My first 4 found Portland snails (they are pets and breed at times) came from my first day of classes with Pendulum at the French American School. (My first snail, Moody, was a gift.) But since then, have not had such a haul at once. I wonder if the school welcomes them to keep the escargots culture alive, or if the snails sense their native language. it is odd, but again, i may need just to get out to the hills more to find my bounty.

Extreme Cuisine

I did it!! I ate things I never want to eat again (at least this week). I was so excited to participate in the Extreme Cuisine class at the Oregon Culinary Institute in Portland. I met with the chef/instructor, Melinda Casady, last week to talk about my attending as Miss Snail Pail with my snails and slugs to add to her huge array of offal and mealworms, kangaroo meat, lamb tongue, pigtails, oxtail, rocky mountain oysters, frog legs, ostrich, crickets, blood sausage, chicken feet...It was A LOT of food from animals that I don't usually eat, so it was a day of expansion and exploration. A day of fun and feasting!

Melinda wants us Americans to remember that if you eat chicken breasts, what about the thighs and the feet? Why do people waste so much of an organism that has died for one small piece of cuisine? And hey, mealworms are great protein! Just avoid the really big ones because they are fed hormones. As I was biting into the mealworm chocolate chirp chip cookies, I was expecting the chocolate chip love I wanted. It was there, but so were the crunchy crispy tubular worms to keep me from binging on sugar. One was great!!

I did love the lamb (pig?) tongue thinly sliced in this amazing warm salad with vinegar, onions, ginger, lemon. And after my third slice of pig testicle, I was nodding my head, "OK," this is definitely food. The kangaroo meat was delicious with that oregano. And the curried ostrich I prepared was tasty. Since I promote foraging for slugs and snails in our yards as a local source of protein, as well as a sustainable way to avoid losing plants to the slimy mollusks, I had to learn more about what people eat around the world. A couple people in the class from Asia said that oxtail, the duck eggs, and balut, were all pretty common fare. Balut being an expensive delicacy. I had to watch, but not able to bite there. Just a personal hang up. The durian and mangosteens are Asian fruit with mixed reputations. Mangosteens remind me of lychees a bit.

The purpose of the class was founded in a real desire to get people to remember that we take animals and food for granted, and perhaps we just don't know how to prepare them. We don't know how to get to the bones.

As a chicken, fish, and garden mollusk eater, with a love of fruits, grains and vegetables, I took huge leaps eating those fatty pigtails and trying to bite into the tough rattlesnake. Oxtail was like good old home cooking from my Hungarian grandmother, and if my Polish grandmother was still alive, I am sure she would have brought in her sausage recipe and whipped up some pickled pigs feet. In her last days, she craved them.

We made so much food, enough for many other culinary students to try, and to bring home for our housemates:
"I've got leftovers, guys. Mealworms," I try to sound tempting.
"I know who loves mealworms, you'll make them real happy," Rebecca says smiling, pointing to the chicken coop, "the girls." The hens do love the grubs.

I ate some more of the unusuals last night and shared some with my hungry little Plum dog. Wow, he couldn't praise the delicious creations enough. That said, he will eat raw lettuce and chunks of carrot too, so perhaps the lesson is enjoy the bounty and don't be too picky. Variety and balance. Tune in to nature. And "Love the slug."

I just got an email today: a new Miss Snail Pail is posted on YouTube.

Snail Caviar

Today my amazing fashion and costume making friend, Paloma (www.palomasoledad.com) told me about snail caviar. She said it sells for some outrageous fee, 200 EU's for 125 grams. I know when my snails (and slugs did it too!) started laying eggs, I had lots of babies in 2 weeks. Never really thought of not letting them emerge as mini snails. On a YouTube about it, they say that one snail only lays like 100 eggs in a lifetime. Not true. I think that is to make it seem more precious. Snails can lay 60-120 eggs every few weeks in a Mediterranean climate. And they can live a number of years. Plus being hermaphrodites...well, still, the eggs are tiny. I really need to up my snailing value. I realize when I act like I will do it without charging lots of money, people just can't value the generosity. Come spring, I need to get all of us out there collecting and eating our snails and slugs!!!

ACLU and Alberta Co-op

The sun was out a couple weeks ago, so I went for a walk with my dog to catch the light and warmth. "excuse me, do you have a minute?"
And so he tells me about his mission against prop. 8 and will I join the ACLU. He gives a good spiel and I appreciate his efforts....
"Really? You mean I could have been eating beer marinated slugs this summer?"
"Well, I don't know if I'd want ones that had been outside soaking dead in beer. But there are those people who eat road kill; swear by it. That isn't my scene. I like to collect when they are alive and purge them, make sure they are healthy."
"That's great! I don't know why I didn't think to eat the slugs...of course."
OF COURSE! You hear that? It is happening.
I took some of the left over Muhammarra to the Alberta Food Co-op where I work as a substitute/on-call cashier. It was a training session about recruiting owner-members. A few people tried the dip. Others were interested in being so near to it. One co-worker came up to me, "Is that with slugs? I heard you eat them. I am so excited to try. We had 4 cabbages in our garden completely covered in slugs last year and they devoured them."
"Yes, and now you can devour the slugs with the cabbage in some delectable vegetable garden mollusk medley of your own imagining."
"Do you purge them? How?"
I told her my methods for clearing my mind and garden mollusk guts before eating them. She smiled, "Cool. Thanks!" excited and anticipating the spring to come.
And won't it be fun to go on a snailing expedition in Ashland in spring?! Someone from tango just told me that the sidewalks are slippery with snails in May and June. What a blessing!

Slow Food potluck...

I walked in a few minutes late. Lots of savory dishes on this table, salads on that, desserts over there. I realized how many events and situations I have been attending lately that give me the initial feeling that I am in school; the sense that I am a bit awkward inside and self-conscious (does it have to do with the clothing?) No, it is the entering into a place where you know no one and don't know what to expect. Sure, it will be fine, perhaps fun, perhaps educational. But there is an element of effort that is noticeably different from when I go to a party that is just a social gathering about relaxing and enjoying. Oh yes, and I know over half the people there. Whenever there is a cause at hand, this case p:ear was announcing its work with homeless youth, the focus is on action and responsibility; revelry is not the theme. Love, delicious, nutritious food, and caring for the health and wealth of people and planet was on the table.
I was serving up an adaptation of a Turkish Muhammarra using pecans from my housemate's parents' farm, local red peppers, garden mollusks (mostly snails, about 25 small slugs and one large Limax Maximus), lemon, parsley, mint, toast, garlic...It tasted the same with and without the garden mollusks, so I consider this a great starter dish for the squeamish. All but 1/4 of the dip was eaten. The sign said "Muhammarra: Pecan, pepper, and garden mollusk dip." The escarglows (snail shell candles) burning in the lettuce leaf garnish helped illuminate the ingredients for those questioning "what does she mean by garden mollusks?".
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I am learning so much about reducing my footprint. When I went to the potluck, I was under the impression that I was to bring enough plates and utensils for 6-8 people. It seemed odd that 6-8 people would all bring enough food for 6-8 and also enough plates and napkins...wouldn't that be like 60+ plates? Yes, and that is how I learned that you bring food for 6-8, but a ceramic plate, metal fork, and cloth napkin for yourself. So there I was handing Anil a small paper (of the highest recycled materials, I tell you) cocktail plate and thinking, "Crap, I just gave some ceramic dishes back to this catering guy the other day or I'd have some in my car." And all this Pelegrino water is just for us, honey, so drink up. The wine people brought is apparently for 1-2, not 6-8, and so don't imagine that a draught of organic red will be smoothing over your palate any time tonight. It worked well. Anil and I could load up our mini plates and go back for seconds. It helped me take one bite of the over 30 or 50 dishes and truly downsize my eyes. Probably the most vegetables I have eaten in months in one sitting. So delicious!
I spoke with an acquaintance about her food. She introduced me to her husband and said, "He ate it!" about my dip. She did not. I looked at his plate and smiled. There was one bite taken from the small slice of bread shmeared with the reddish paste. "You didn't eat it." I semi-rudely blurt. Really, did I have to put him on the spot? He tasted it. "The slugs kind of ..."
Of course. It took me 4 years to get there. Some are already there, others close, others definitely aren't heading there and that's great. I have many things that don't interest me, and I commend him for giving it a shot at all if it wasn't on his radar before.
As we were getting my dish to leave, Anil points around a wall to a small kitchen with a dishwasher open revealing at least 10 plates. I laughed. The dishwasher was directly across from the food. Obviously the whole plate fiasco was a form of entertainment for us and a humbling reality check for me. There are so many ways to lessen our waste on this planet. Fortunately I am gleaning bits of knowledge as I continue to immerse myself in the world of food.