Lyn Paxman currently has 2,000 snails at her West Buckland home. She is increasing the number for her snail meat and snail egg caviar business.

“Their slime is also used in wrinkle treatments at snail spas, but I’m not sure how that would go down,” she said.

The 51-year-old came up with the idea of breeding snails after buying a house with land near Wellington.

“You only need half an acre to start a snail farm and it just ticked so many boxes and we decided to go for it.”

“In Somerset, locally foraged snails were used in a hugely popular dish known as Mendip wallfish in the 50′s,” she said.

“They actually do need containing so we’re installing tiny little electric fences to stop them from crawling too high,” she said.