A Good Day

A good many of these posts will be old history of what I've been doing in the last three years or so [though the real goal will be to serve up "hot off the press" posts], but here's some relatively new news. On May 17th I served I gave an insect tasting at an Audubon party, celebrating the hard-working people who nurtured the Broad Meadow Brook Conservation Center and Wildlife Sanctuary over its 15 year history in Worcester MA. Some of the attendees were really into what I was serving, which is always good. Some of them were really into the Giant Water Bugs that I so love to serve, and others chowed down on the less ostentatious cricket. Though I did hit my usual environmental message a little, I was content to be part of the entertainment, along with the talented caricaturist who did a great job on me.





In fact, yeah, that's one of those Giant Water Bugs right there; I'm holding it in the wooden spoon. And a big “Thanks” to my good friend Trip Wolfskehl of Screen Craft Tile Works in Providence for scanning this for me.

And while I'm at it: the Newark gig was two days ago, and that went very well. Bug Mania! 2 had well over 1,000 visitors; not all of them came over to my table, and even fewer ate insects, but quite a few folks got involved.
As it happens, this was one of the gigs where I was on my own, so there was no-one there to take pictures. I may be able to score some from the museum's photographer [you never know...]

Next Gig! (uh, presentation)

I’ll be serving up the insects at the Newark Museum’s Bug Mania 2 on June 9th. The event runs from 11am to 4 pm (a long day) and I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll be serving:

House Crickets
Cicadas [not very many]
Chapulines [VERY few]
Ant Pupae
Silkworm Pupae
Giant Water Bug

And possibly something more; not sure yet.
I'll also probably blog my review of the day.

The Story Thus Far

I live in Providence, RI with my wonderful wife and daughter. In 2001 I realized that insects are the best food with which to feed the world, whereas cows, pigs, and other large mammals are thoroughly inefficient ways to produce food. (Granted there are other concerns, but when someone finds something that really fuels his or her life, obstacles tend to melt away, at least temporarily. I've noticed that the obstacles are still around, and are very substantial.) It’s just that insects are such an elegant solution to so many of the food issues humanity is facing these days that I couldn’t resist getting involved. Besides, it’s fun to feed people insects.

I got started slowly, learning and teaching about edible insects, and didn’t officially form my business until 2005. Sunrise Land Shrimp has been going pretty well. The website needs a lot of updating – it’s one of the reasons for the blog – but there’s still a lot of good information and images there. And contact information, but I’ll include that here too: Dave@slshrimp.com

As for the sense behind the name [this text was once at the top of my home page; I should probably restore it]:

Sunrise because I wanted to send a message that there was
something new under the sun, a new day dawning. Land Shrimp
because insects are to the land what crustaceans are to the sea.

Yet while entomologists tend to like the name quite a bit, most people just scratch their heads and look at me funny. Though I’ve been attached to the company name, the time has come to shift to something more easily identifiable. “Dave’s Gourmet Insects” comes to mind; I’m open to suggestions.

Mostly I’ve been giving educational programs about the uses of insects as food, and at the great majority of these programs I’ve served cooked insects to the attendees. I’m also very interested in obtaining processed insects from all over the world, and I’ve had some small successes in that. Though I’ll write about the bugs themselves of course – and share pictures – this will be more about trying to make the business work. In fact this is long overdue; mass communication is a good way to finally start working smart instead of just working hard.

I’ll do my best to make this entertaining. We’ll see. In the meantime I’ve got some really great T-shirts to move. Just thought I’d toss that out there.