In a dark barn on a farm on the outskirts of Vienna, Andreas Gugumuck is preparing the "love room" for the multiple guests that come to stay.

His role is to provide atmospheric lighting, and a steady supply of snacks for those visitors who want to take a break from being amorous with numerous partners.

Yet Mr Gugumuck isn't running some sort of guest house of disrepute; he is in fact breeding snails.

The 40-year-old is Austria's only full-time professional snail farmer, producing 300,000 per year for human consumption.

With 1kg of snail meat selling for up to 80 euros ($105; £63) it is a lucrative business.

Mr Gugumuck sells up to 1.5 tonnes of snails per year to restaurants across Austria, and via exports, predominantly to Germany and the US.

And he recently flexed his entrepreneurial muscles by diversifying into selling snail caviar - yes, snail eggs - and snail livers.

He says it is a significantly more enjoyable job than his previous life working in IT.

Historic Austrian food

Mr Gugumuck grew up on a farm, but had no interest in taking it over from his father.

So instead he did a degree in computer science and economics, and then joined the Austrian branch of IT giant IBM in 2000, where he held a number of positions, rising to project manager.

But Mr Gugumuck says "there was something missing".

"I produced nothing, just words and concepts, and so I looked about at alternatives, and then I read this article about snails being used again in haute cuisine.

"Then I researched a little about snails, and I found a very famous cookbook, and in this cookbook I read about the big, historic tradition - especially here in Vienna - about snails being eaten during Lent."

Snails being harvested from Mr Gugumuck's field, which produces 300,000 per year     Snail eggs and livers fetch premium prices, but remain perhaps acquired tastes

For while France is today the biggest consumer of snails, or escargots as they are called in French, Mr Gugumuck discovered that in the Middle Ages, it was in fact Vienna that was the centre of snail eating.

He adds that at the time Vienna was devoutly Roman Catholic, and people were forbidden from eating meat during Lent - the six weeks before Easter.

As snails were not considered to be meat, there was huge demand for them during the period.

Yet as the centuries progressed, eating snails all but disappeared in Austria. That is until Mr Gugumuck was inspired to try to bring it back.

Source: BBC