A herd like no other...

A little later, our two fellows met Dino Briganti in his lair. A little corner of paradise, slipped silently a stone's throw from the Fleurantine town where he and his wife Marina live and develop a rather unique activity. 

Brice not having finished his croque-monsieur was going to miss part of the meeting. 

Heloise : I searched a little before coming, it's the first time... You are a heliculturist... We suspect that you don't collect propellers, they don't grow here... So what is it all about? 

Dino : (laughing with difficulty…) We are snail breeders. And our place of culture is right there! Dino showing an aviary without birds, covered with greenery on the ground. The rows of wood separating the surface, into avenues, like so many refuges for snails. When the sun shines, even burns, says 2022, they take refuge on the hidden side of the boards until dusk. With the descent of the sun and the drop in temperatures, we start watering. Then the sweeping begins. A swarm of “slug-owners” passes from the back to the front of the boards, they appear in full view of everyone, especially us breeders. It's more practical when orders flood in, especially since the total herd is 130000 head! 

Brice hurrying to get it over with: Scrounch, scrounch, scrounch, Brice with his intense gaze on the croque-monsieur…It’s between him and me! 

Heloise : As Brice would surely have said, 130000 head makes hay! But where are the boots?  

Dino : Under the hood there! Several pairs to equip my small team: my wife, me and three “pickers”. A significant workload between maintaining, feeding, monitoring to multiply by the number of little soft heads... They eat the bugs!  

We vary the pleasures, by planting soya and clover which they roam and devour. Add corn flour and calcium bicarbonate (the same mixture as for chickens). There is no treatment on the plantations otherwise the snail ingests it and it is then the consumer's turn, so we impose a strictness of 0% mandatory entry. We want to offer a quality product for sale but with an advantageous pricing policy. I am a trained mason, from a background of modest workers. For me it is also political, I want a virtuous relationship, balanced between quality and quantity. 

Brice : Quantity and quality, isn't that the motto of the Gers? 

Dino : It could be, in any case that’s our credo here. We're just breeding. No transformation yet but that will change this year. A new extension will allow us to cook. We will continue to sell ready-to-cook snails, and double production to sell prepared meals. The recipes considered are the classics: With parsley, with tomatoes but also drawn from my cultural heritage… 

Brice : Perpetuating know-how is a voluntary and noble commitment. The richness of the world and the beauty that emerges from it flow from this central idea. Make a beautiful braid of white garlic from Lomagne, season your blood sausage correctly, pick daffodils, raise a Gascon frame, play rugby on the short side, that can't be invented, it's passed down. René Couderc, genius of television commentary, supported the France team without objectivity with his legendary “Allez les Petits”. We could not help but think like him. We can safely slip him into our common history, inhabitants of the southwest, he was from Mauvezin… You were talking about heritage…But which one? 

Heloise : I would even say, the heritage you were talking about, which one is it? 

Dino : I am of Sicilian origin, from Palermo exactly. Apart from two members installed on the Italian boot, everyone is still there! The only distant “ugly duckling” is me. I go to my family's island regularly, every year, it's a necessity. An opportunity to seize and take with me the heliculture that two of my uncles are already aware of. Family tradition also brings its share of culinary recipes, based on snails, as you can imagine. You will find them on our menu of prepared meals on sale this year. My goal is to be able to sell my prepared meals from June to July 2023 at the latest. Progress is measured. We started ten years ago with 100 kg of production, today we are at 1.550 tonnes, before doubling to accelerate towards the sale of cooked snails. 

Brice : Accelerate and snails aren't they a bit contradictory? 

Heloise : What a lively man…. Really... That the world would have been a tighter place without you Brice... A stupid question to stay on topic... When do you pick up your Back Packers? 

Dino : From March to October. The last ones at the end of the season are placed in hibernation during the winter so that we can move on quickly as soon as our production resumes. The snail that hibernates seals the entrance to the shell and stays that way for months. A natural reaction that can be caused by lowering the temperature. Our fridges fool these beautiful people and allow us, in the event of very high heat, to save our little grays while the climate becomes milder. 

Brice : The atmosphere is a vital space, therefore livable. It is therefore essential that it remains so, otherwise where will we go? We need so many fridges... If we say a fridge for a family, assuming that a family… 

Heloise : on the verge of despair… Do you know that the nickname of your Lectourois neighbors is “Limacayres”? Florant residents once named them as they regularly saw them zigzagging on the southern slopes of Lectoure, armed with torches, looking for snails after dark. 

Dino : Thanks for the anecdote! It is not a question. But it allows me to clarify an important facet of our activity... Who are these snails? “Petit-gris”, eaten and appreciated around here. The other species is called “Burgundy” or “Gros gris”. Our customers who are from the region are less fond of Burgundians. We sell to individuals, festival committees, clubs and associations. We must be notified a few days in advance to anticipate because everything depends on the requested weight. Even if you want a kilo, no problem, we'll prepare that for you! Otherwise, go to the escargolades and cargolades in the sector to taste our know-how. 

Brice : “Savoarfer” isn’t a hard cheese? 

Heloise : I definitely regret that this croque-monsieur was not double... Thank you very much Dino for your welcome, in this little haven of peace where moving in slow motion is not frowned upon... It's a luxury! 

The time allotted to our two curiosity seekers had come to an end. In a cloud of dust they disappeared. Our first-time slug breeder wondered if he was waking up from a dream...  

An infernal spiral and almost the end of it, they came back...Brice had forgotten his snack bag. Clap ! 

To contact Dino, click here!  

Telephone: 06 10 65 01 57