462: Molly Watson on Harvesting Garden Snails.

Turning garden pests into edible treats.


Molly is the editor-in-chief of Edible Communities, the flagship website for a network of 80+ hyper-local food magazines across the US and Canada. She is the author of Bowls! (2017) and Greens + Grains (2014), both from Chronicle Books, as well as the forthcoming Should We All Be Vegan? out this fall (2019) from Thames & Hudson. She lives in San Francisco where the winters feel colder than her native Minnesota, no matter what the local say. Molly hates to garden! She’s tried it, she wants to like it, but she just doesn’t! She wrote about it a bit in her award-winning piece “Cooking’s Not for Everyone,” about how people shouldn’t have to cook (garden) to have high-quality, locally grown, sustainable food.

In This Podcast:

Her 9-year-old son wanted to eat snails while in France, and once home he wanted to eat the garden snails too – so food writer Molly Watson did the research and figured out how to harvest and cook the snails they collected. Her down to earth descriptions can help any gardener who wondered if the pests had an edible purpose. She also shares a lot about her research for her upcoming book about how to decide about being vegan.

Listen in and learn about:

    • She was a French Historian, but felt the academic life was not right for her.
    • Tried being a food writer and loved it, but could not garden
    • Garden snails are the same kind as escargot snails
    • Her 9-year-old son was fascinated by the thought of eating snails
    • Next he wanted to eat the garden snails, so she did the research
    • The process to help prepare the snails for eating
    • Cooking them in garlic butter
    • Tricks to catching them in the garden
    • Things to be wary of with snails
    • Couple ways to serve them
    • More about Edible Communities
    • Her early recipes on hunting or foraging for a new food
    • Why she hates to garden
    • And how cooking is easy because she loves to cook
    • More about her book Should We All Be Vegan?
    • The Pythagorean Diet – what she learned while researching for her upcoming book

As well as:

Her failure – When traveling with her family in a small town and dragged them all over trying to ensure they had a meal that met her food writer standards

Her success – The fact that she supports herself as a writer

Her drive – “The most common form of despair is not being who you are” Søren Kierkegaard

Her advice – It’s just a cake

Molly’s Recipe on the Urban Farm Blog

Garden Escargot

Books written by Molly

Bowls!: Recipes and Inspirations for Healthful One-Dish Meals

Greens + Grains: Recipes for Deliciously Healthful Meals

Should We All Be Vegan?: A Primer for the 21st Century (The Big Idea Series) 

Molly’s Book recommendations: 

Distinction by Pierre Bourdieu 

How to reach Molly

UrbanFarm.org/snails


Special thanks to our sponsors:Gemplers Logogemplers.com/urbanfarm (use code URBANFARM01)

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