I've Got Representation!

Since I'll be in Thailand for a little while, it would be a shame if those who'd like to talk with me missed out. While I'm away please direct inquiries into me and/or Sunrise Land Shrimp to:

Mike Ritz
Mritz@eyeofprovidence.org

Media, contact 617-462-6908 to schedule interviews.


Thanks,

Dave

Some Big News for SLS.

Today there's an article about my work in the New York Times Sunday Magazine. Sam Nejame wrote it and he did a really nice job on it. It arose from an ice cream project I'd done in the Fall, which -- along with a few other subjects, like my wonderful Gastronauts experience and Zack's shipment of bugs from the wilds of Louisiana -- I need to post about. Though the article includes neither my website nor the name of my company, I know that potentially interested parties will be able to locate me well enough.

Other news: I'm to be a featured guest on the Colbert Report this Wednesday, 2/15. That'll be interesting. And I'll be leaving for Thailand on 2/15 for the FAO [Food and Agriculture Office, a branch of the UN] Conference mentioned in the NYT article. I'm looking forward to seeing Thailand; I've never been to South-East Asia before.

Please stay tuned, you wonderfully patient and loyal readers.

Another country heard from

There's a lot of things to talk about, I need to blog them but for the moment here's a thought for the day.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/012308EB.shtml

I'm slowly starting to get ready to research the underlying issues and realities around food-production and the ways that entomophagy can fit into a paradigm of living sanely on the planet. This desired research may have to cover a vast amount of territory, including water consumption; efficient conversion of plant foods into edible proteins; the quirks and patterns that shape food preferences and biases; animal flatulence; and stuff like that. The above article is about the loss of topsoil, which I would never have thought was a problem but yup, it seems to be.

More soon.

A New Challenge for the New Year

Greetings Everybody. Happy 'O8.

There are a lot of good challenges facing me and my little company this year and I'll write about them soon. I promise.

For the moment, I've got a challenge for you, especially those of you in or near American cities. As I've mentioned, several small markets here in Providence offer three kinds of insects in the frozen food section. I'd love to hear about what's sold in NYC, or DC, or LA, Chicago, El Paso, Denver, places like that. I just learned about an African market in Burlington VT [not most people's idea of a very diverse part of the country] that sold dried caterpillars or grubs not long ago.

My visits to both Chinatowns [if one can still use that word in this day and age] in New York turned up practically nothing. There was plenty of exotic foods, especially in Flushing, Queens, but nothing in the way of insects. Inquiries went nowhere. The same happened in Boston.

Is it possible that a smaller city like Providence has the bugs but larger cities don't?? Seems really unlikely. It's more likely that I don't know where to look.

I can offer small rewards -- we could easily work out just what that would mean. But just as I need insect hunters to beat the bushes throughout this country and world, so do I need pairs of feet through the aisles of stores here and there.

Whaddaya Say??

This blog

Last night someone told me that my blog sucks. That hurt, but I guess I needed to hear it. She explained that she was referring to the frequency of posts rather than content, which made it hurt a bit less.

My computer won't let me attach images; the pertinent windows won't open. It's super-frustrating because I want to feature more than just words. I store images on my zip drive, visit computers at work or the public library and patch the drafts and the images there. I'd love to get a new computer but that's not feasible.

My family responsibilities take up a lot of time, so I can't get to the above locations as much as I'd like.

So in lieu of real insect news, here's a solstice-season whine.

On the more positive side: a bunch of cool projects are going on, and though they might well be a bit dated by the time I blog them I promise I will share the details with all.

Summer's Hunt

It's cold now, the insects are gone. I can only anticipate more hunts next year and recall this setting of past strivings; the epic struggles between a determined human hunter and a host of highly-evolved flying insects.

Man Eating Bugs, the impressive ‘picture-book’ by Menzel and D’Alusio that illustrates worldwide entomophagy, includes dragonfly hunting on the exotic island of Bali. The people there call them ‘sky prawns,’ which is significant. I knew I’d have to go get some, and that the hunt would be hard work. I once read about a simple way to catch dragonflies – pluck them while they rest on branch-tips over little streams at night. But I’ve never found them that way. It would be either stalk/charge/swing-the-net or nothing.

This made the hunt the most labor-intensive I’ve executed. Some would say more laborious than the prey is worth but if I started listening to the voice of reason I might be tempted to give up on entomophagy altogether, and hat would be a crying shame.

The Indonesian method was similar, but craftier. The hunter [generally kids] would visit the ponds and paddies frequented by dragonflies. The tool of choice: a considerable length of reed, the end of which coated in sticky tree sap. This would be held out like a perch and yet flicked at the right moment, taking an insect while on the wing.





My technique: Iaido-style. The haft is held down and to my left, across the body, double-handed. Having sighted my target, I approach stiffly, one footfall at a time. I would keep my eyes locked (not always as easy, especially when another target would interpose) until the moment to swing the net. Once I learned to swing just above the insect's resting position I could sometimes see it rise into the net's apeture, but at least as often I saw it sail away over or beyond the net. My average was not very impressive but I improved.



The documentation: minimal, merely these words and images. I've been obliged to work alone so there’s no one to hold a camera. I took these pictures so I'm not in them. I probably looked so ridiculous out there that only motion picture [a la Youtube] would have done it justice.





The results: not too bad.

I haven't done much to identify them; this bothers me a little, since, given how little is known about which insect species are edible and which aren't, it would be useful to have a lock on what I plan to eat or to serve to the public. But I've spoken with an expert or two, and there seems to be no records of any toxic in dragonflies North America. So that's reassuring.

I did get some large grasshoppers along the way. They're much easier to identify, by and large, when it comes to that: they're Dissosteira carolina and they're not easy to catch. In fact before I developed my own technique I looked really silly chasing them across the field as I missed getting them again and again. Once I got my method on, though, things were slightly different: I caught them once in every 5 tries instead of once in every 12, and though I still looked ridiculous it wasn't quite as bad.

There were other good moments out in the field; birds, deer. Once I surprised a young black racer and managed both to get him in the net and then out again in my hands before he could foul the material with his very nasty-smelling cloacal emissions. After admiring him I let him go. After all, this is not a reptile-eating endeavor I’m running here, and I have no interest in taking an animal from the wild as a pet.

The eating: dragonflies taste a bit like burned toast, but the texture is unique.




It's no surprise that cooking the dragonflies robs them of some of their delicate perfection. They look pretty good on the plate, but nothing compared to freshly-frozen.

What will I do with these insects now that I've got them? They're available for the contest in Richmond, or for some special order from a customer. And I'll probably experiment with a preparation or two as well.

More on the way [and one more gig coming up]

Greetings.

It's been a long while since I've posted, and I can offer only poor excuses like my day-job and family responsibilities. But I haven't abandoned the noble cause, nor the desire to communicate through this humble blog. Please know that I'm working on a couple of posts and they'll be out soon.

Also, this coming Tuesday, 11/20, I'll be a featured guest at the meeting of New England branch of the Explorer's Club. It's scheduled for 8pm at the Blacksmith House, 56 Brattle Street in Harvard Square. The public is welcome, and there's a suggested voluntary donation of $10.

Perhaps, gentle readers, I'll meet one of you there.