François Lesage is a market gardener but he does not consider snails as pests in the garden.
He even accepted the installation of 100,000 gastropods in the middle of his rows of organic cabbages!
For the past year, two snail parks of 300 m2 each have taken place on an uncultivated part of its land, in the village of Saint-Ouen-du-Tilleul (Eure), about thirty kilometers south of Rouen.
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It is Lise Duhamel, heliculturist since 2019 and customer of the market gardener for 15 years, who installed her thousands of gros-gris, a subspecies native to North Africa, in the middle of the vegetables.
Nurse for ten years, the young woman is well placed "to know that we have only one life".
So she wanted to dedicate hers to snails.
Gastropods cannot give in to temptation
As a child, she stole these little animals from the family garden and raised them in an aquarium.
"It is," she said, "an animal that I have always adored.
He walks slowly but he knows where he is going.
And he always manages to flee despite all obstacles.
"
From May to October, the thousands of gastropods, fed on plants sown by the breeder, therefore glide a few meters from the vegetables they love so much.
In order not to give in to temptation, they are surrounded by electrified fences.
“But, from time to time,” explains Lise Duhamel, “there are one or two who take the edge off or take advantage of a power cut!
Fortunately, without any real damage to crops.
“The snails were very good, we are doing it again next year,” confirms François Lesage.
Snail droppings are rich in nitrogen
By lending a piece of land left fallow so that the land can rest, the producer does not forget his vegetables.
“All these snails, that's a lot of droppings, rich in nitrogen.
Next year, the parks will rotate, like the rest of the crops, because we practice rotation.
And on the land where the snails were this year, sprouts will soon grow.
“In a snail park,” explains Lise Duhamel, “you have to plant many species of plants, especially honey.
So we necessarily regenerate the earth.
"
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A collaboration which also contributes to the development of the sector, while the majority of snails consumed in France are imported and the country has only 400 producers.
Lise Duhamel's snails - “soft and tasty” in her words - are the only ones in Normandy to be certified organic.
They are cooked by him, Burgundy, Espelette pepper or Pont-l'Evêque cheese, using only François Lesage vegetables.
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From now on, the market gardener is even entitled to his little dozen free "shells" from time to time, "so much better than what you buy frozen at the supermarket", slips the happy business partner ...
