On one of our recent visit to the mountains, I brought a little man with me to a farm a few kilometers away from the town.
There are actually three kids with us, however, as much as I want to bring all of them to experience what it’s like to see an actual river and a farm, I can only safely assist one of them. I mean, they are not used to the path and they might trip and even roll on the side of the mountain.
I named him Donald Duck on this post, by the way, based on the shirt that he is wearing. 😊
This is his second time coming with me so he already knows what to expect. And I know that he is eager to pick some edible snails from the rice fields.
Here are some photos that I've taken on our destination. Hope you enjoy looking at them too. 😊
We saw two snails mating hear the edge of the field.
This black colored snail is the native snail in here. There are only a few of them now since the introduction of the non-native snails.
The following photos are snail eggs. It is definitely colorful and beautiful that I took the opportunity to took some photos.
The following photos are colored white as they are already starting to hatch. As the eggs mature and hatch, they will fall on the water and become little snails.
As it can be seen from the photo, a major portion of the clump of eggs has already been detached and has fallen on the water.
And since our main purpose is to pick some snails I give the boy the opportunity to once more, experience it. 😊
Aside from the regular snails. We also picked some horn snails. We call them agurong, or agudong or susong pilipit locally here.
As we conclude our snail picking experience, I asked him to put water to the small plastic bag so that the snails will not perish along the way.
The Journey to the Farm
Our journey going to the farm started from a paved road and then to a foot path where some sections of it are still wet and muddy due to the recent rains. We also took some shortcuts that has very tall grasses as it is rarely used.
This is his second time coming with me and I am confident that his previous experience can help him traverse the un-even and full of naturally foot trapping path. From time to time, I made him go first as you can see from the photo above.
I am cautiously checking ahead of the path as he might be stepping on a venomous snake. This is one disadvantage of not having a hunting dog that usually scout ahead and notify us of possible snakes.
Also, it is a good thing that is not the early raining season or else there would be a lot of blood sucking leeches waiting to stick on our feet.
I am also cautiously observing him on how he will deal with muddy sections, the tall grasses that are blocking our way and slippery stones along the way. Of course, I am also guiding him on the best way to traverse this un-linear pathway. Also, I warned him to watch out for possible snakes along the way.
After a few kilometers of twist and turns, I can see his excitement as the entire rice field was revealed to him.
Taddaa!!!!
This is one of the few rice terraces of our own. 😊
A few kilometers seems a long boring trip, however, this is not the case as there are a lot of interesting things I showed him along the way.
His excitement to see and pick some edible snails is clearly visible as he is constantly looking around the edges of the paddies. 😊
I added a photo of him rock climbing on one of the edges of the rice terraces as we reach our destination.
Going Back to the Town
After the snail picking experience, I decided to take him on an alternative route back to the town. As there are more views I wanted to show him.
As we climb back up, we encountered this plant that has some edible fruits that we used to eat back when we are still kids. 😋
I actually forgot what's this called locally. I checked Google Lens to know more about the plant but it cannot identify it properly.
We also encountered a carabao along our way. It seems it is hiding from the heat of the sun. 😊
We took a break from our walk on a waiting shade and enjoyed a nice view from the top.
After that, we continued to go back to town and I can see him constantly checking on his catch. We only managed to catch a little but from his expression, it is definitely worth it. 😉
Closing Thoughts
As I already mentioned, what we picked are edible snails. We haven't served them in a plate yet as we need to starve them around 7 to 10 days. This is to give them enough time to excrete any toxic matters that they have eaten.
Also, in other areas of the country, this snails are considered pests as they eat through the leaves of the rice. This is one reason why rice farmers are happy when one would go snail picking on their farm. 😊
That's all again for now.
Thank you for taking your time reading and viewing my post. I hope that in one way or another, you find it informative and entertaining.
I literally captured almost 100 different images on this journey but had to select only a handful for this post.
I would like to know your thoughts about the snails or anything that is connected to my post. I am personally interested on dishes that you would recommend for the snails. 😊
Again, thank you and have a wonderful day ahead.
All photos in this post are taken by me using my phone. You can use any of them on your post too as long you credit them back to me and with no ill intensions. 😊
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