Don't turn your nose up at the 'Winkle

Over 1,232 tonnes of periwinkles are exported from Ireland every year. The little winkle finds itself being served at highly sophisticated restaurants throughout France, Spain,United Kingdom and the Netherlands.Very few periwinkles are actually consumed, however, in Ireland, whereas oysters, scallop and mussels find theirway regularly onto Irish menus. Last year, Irish seafood exports had a value of €360 million. The winkle only occupies a meagre sale value of approximately €1,663,000 a year, but this is not to be sniffed at. Money earned from picking periwinkles supplements the income of quite a number of people living in small remote coastal communities. Depending on the season, locals are paid between €2 – €4 per kilo. Christmas is the most lucrative time.The landing and processing of winkles is fairly straightforward. No boats are needed. They are gathered on the shoreline when the tide is out and delivered to an agent from an export company. There are several companies in Ireland exporting winkles. An Irish company owned by a family originally from Brittany run a factory, Breizon Ltd., out of the Old Coastguard Station, in Rossaveal. They export up to 400 – 500 tons of winkles a year and have been involved in this business since 1977. Loic Trahan (one of the directors of the company) regrets that there is not more of a domestic market for winkles. “Our company has a van that travels all over Ireland collecting bags of winkles from locals. The winkles are stored at a temperature of five degrees before they are exported,” he explains.He believes that there are plenty of winkle resources that could be used for a domestic market. “Irish people, for cultural and traditional reasons, just don’t want to eat periwinkles,” he says. The winkle may be popular overseas for its high protein, lowfat and taste but the Irish are not interested. One perception is that they may have become polluted over the years. This is not necessarily the case. Periwinkles are not filter feeders such as oysters. They are herbivores and graze mainly on seaweed. The only pollution that they may ingest depends on any pollution present on the surface of seaweed.Some nostalgic Galwegians recall faint memories of buying bags of winkles when they were small. This tradition has, it appears, long died out. It seems that the only evidence that the hardy winkle exists at all is in the dark bent over silhouette of the winkle harvester at low tide.Way out on the reef past Blackrock, Salthill, there are often one or two harvesters diligently filling their sacks full of succulent winkles. Their................