Love No Reservations and thought this might be a helpful crowd to answer my questions...

I live in a complex where the flora and sprinkler system create a great environment for snails. It took me 3 years to finally think "I wonder if I have a natural food source, french cuisine in fact, just propagating itself naturally... FREE, for my consumption?" (Almost like a light bulb in my head saying, if these were filet mignons being trampled on daily, wouldn't YOU give them a more noble end? By eating them?

After a 30 second snail hunt last night I gathered 4 specimens to photo and examine (leaving their plentiful hermaphro-bro/sisters for a later date) - and I'm pretty sure I have a typical (and TASTY) California species - Helix lactea/Otala lactea. Before I get too excited - I want to verify that they are what I've concluded.

I've researched enough to know the procedure for capturing and feeding/purging the snails for prep. Recipes are a plenty, and I understand I need to contact my HOA `complex` members to be sure no snail poison is being used. (Which I highly doubt, there are TOO many snails for that, and I think they have way better issues to deal with!)

I've never tried escargot, but this is a great (and free) opportunity to experiment with some `exotic` cuisine - I'm excited! (Girlfriend, not so much...heheh.) For the record, I'm an animal lover (including the ugly slimey ones) - and I don't plan on killing anything unless I will be consuming it.

I'm just looking for any escargot or San Diego snail-experienced chefs to give me the go-ahead before I massacre (and enjoy) this seemingly endless supply of protein!

Thanks in advance - Jay

(Pardon the cross-post, but I have pictures of the snails in question linked on this forum:
Pictures here...

Love your post! Can’t recommend San Diego snails for your escargot experiment - suggest you have the real thing at the Hotel Del Coronado first - maybe the chef will give you the recipe!

Contrary to popular belief, some garden snails are perfectly edible! You should be wary of collecting just any ole snail as you cannot be sure what they have been eating. Harvesting might be best so you can be sure they haven't eaten anything with pesticides.
Katie, San Diego