Yesterday Hubby Tony bought a stalk of celery at the grocery store and used some in his dinner recipe.
This morning I was cutting up vegetables for lunch. I took the stalk out of the mesh produce bag and noticed a brown bump (about a quarter of an inch long) on one of the ribs. I flicked the lump into the countertop food scrap container. After I finished chopping the vegetables I took the container to the laundry room to dump the scraps into the used cat litter bag. The lump didn't come out and looked like it had attached itself to the bottom of the container. When I looked closely I saw it was a tiny snail!
I wondered how long the snail had been on the celery. Did it hitch its ride in the field, during processing, or at the grocery store? Wherever it happened, I admired the critter's perseverance. However, it couldn't live at my house, so I stopped and considered my next step.
I'm a no-kill type of girl, and would normally release a living thing into the wild outdoors. However, the temperature outside was hovering around freezing, and is forecast to take another dive down later in the week. The snail would probably die a slow, chilly death. Would that be better or worse than being tossed into a stinky bag of cat litter and food scraps which would ultimately end up in the trash?
In the end I chose the latter option. I flicked the snail off the container into the bag, but made sure there was room for it to move away from the other items before I closed the partially-filled bag with a binder clip. Later in the day I tossed more items in the bag and saw the snail had attached itself to the bag up near the top.
Five years ago today: What's On Your TV?
You did the best you could
ReplyDeleteThanks :-)
DeleteFrom the title of your post I thought it was a French recipe.
ReplyDeleteI found a snail in some salad I was making. Took me ages to catch him. I chased him all over the house and then he jumped for freedom from a top window.
God bless.
That does sound like an interesting dish.
Delete"I'm a no-kill type of girl" But... escargot!
ReplyDeleteNot a fan.
DeleteUsually it's the leafy veggies that are full of bacteria and all kinds of organisms, but even celery can get something like a snail.
ReplyDeleteThe last time I bought a bunch of collard greens it was incredible how much nasty stuff was left in the rinsing water.
DeleteThat must have been a surprise! I think you did the best thing you could.
ReplyDeleteQuite a surprise.
DeleteI take slugs and snails over to the yard of a person I don't necessarily get along with that well. At least your snail didn't go down the kitchen food disposal, but that may have been a very quick end.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if your neighbor has any idea what you're doing?
DeleteUg! I'm with you on the no kill thing. I have no idea what I would have done! Maybe try to make a home for it!!! lol
ReplyDeleteCute story, I have an Aquarium and the Snail Issue got out of hand in it. I used to be No Kill and finally it was too exhaustive to know what to do with the fast reproducing things. Now I Imagine them romping around the Pasture I toss them into. *Bwahahahaha* Okay, a stretch I know, but I just can't have layers of Guilt consuming me, so it Works for me, don't Judge. *Winks*
ReplyDeleteIf I were a snail I would much rather be in a pasture than an aquarium :-)
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