snail a la ale

as some of my readership may know - I inherited Henry's unwanted 'Christmas' snails. two of them, to be precise. in case you were curious, here's some facts about them:

• they're called bill and ben
• they need half a cuttle fish every 2 weeks or they'll absorb nutrients from each others' shells instead
• they are hermaphrodites
• rhiannon's been looking after them, and it's been giving her mum nightmares
• they lay on average 200 eggs per clutch, and lay 5-6 clutches per year
• the eggs have about a 90% viability
• if my calculations are correct, then, 2 x 200 x 5 x 0.9 gives me 1800 1st generation snails in a year
• they take about 4 months to reach maturity and can grow up to 7 or 8 cm tall and 20 cm long
• they are apparently giant african snails

I also found a really good site for snail recipes. snail in ale shall be my first attempt, I think. photos may follow.

also, anyone wanting to bring a pizza round instead of snail's welcome to - just send me a text or drop by! as of tomorrow I'll be living here.