Locust Pocus
The Locusta migratoria is, as its name already implies a very wide-spread, itinerant locust. Its ‘locus’ is worldwide, notorious for plague swarms wrecking abominable damage to harvest crops in warm climate zones. There are several sub-species of Locusta migratoria that have evolved according to each continent’s regional ecologies. Although North-west Europe has its own variant, the Egyptian locust is the species bred by Dutch insect farmers. This Egyptian variety is more plump than their spindly European cousin — and is therefore a more efficient bio-mass convertor (turning leaves of grass into protein and fat) with far more nutritional revenue for the insect industry.
This locust variety is bred in the hermetically contained insect breeding farms such as Meertens. Which simulate a kind of swarm environment. The demand for insects is mostly as food for pet birds and reptiles though the Wageningen Institute of Animal Sciences has been researching and promoting a future of entomophagy already fro some time, so as to improve the image of edible insects and incrementally convert Dutch and European consumers to eat more insects as a viable alternative to meat.
Insects are seen as a ’sustainable’ source of protein as they consume less water, need less space, cost less to raise, in all, less carbon off-set than live-stock. Another argument is that these edible ‘insects’ are a natural form of bio-industry since most insects (especially the meal worm) thrive in dense social mounds of thousands if not millions.
A couple of months ago I spoke with different people working as part of the Dutch campaign for entomophagy, namely Marian Peters, the president of the National Union of Insect Breeders —Verenigde Nederlandse Insectenkwekers (VENIK). Established in 2008, VENIK has two main functions: first to ensure that all insect breeders abide by the standards of hygiene and safety and second to achieve commercial interest by changing public mindset and increasing enthusiasm towards the ‘green alternative’ of eating insects.
The Egyptian locust is one of 3 species of insects that VENIK has introduced on the Dutch market: the others are the Buffalo worm (the larvae of the Black fungus beetle) and the the Meal worm. These are a mere 3 of the 1.400 edible varieties of insects globally.
Out of a long standing curiousity and in combination with a food event I was preparing for the Centraal museum Utrecht to cook a painting featuring grasshoppers, I ordered a box of alive and freeze-dried locusts from Kreca — the main organic grasshopper distributor in the Netherlands. After the initial excitement of having these little hoppy things post-delivered in a tightly taped cardboard box stabbed with breathing holes, I began to ponder about the possible dark side of domesticated insect farms. What happens to these insects after they have been bred generation after generation of closed environments? Like most kinds of animal farming — land or water — the creatures are removed from the flow and interaction of ‘external ecologies’. Locust migratoria becomes Locust domesticus.
And what happens if one should escape? Well, Egyptian locusts need 30 + C degree temperature to survive and reproduce so, as Wageningen and VENIK assure the public, apparently the Netherlands would never be at risk of a locust plague apocalypse should a happy few escape and multiply.
The sealed and heated ecology of the farm is a monocultural environment entirely reliant on human maintenance to produce and control a modified and perfectly predictable food product. Of course, human intervention is the base of all farming, and there are ‘good’ farms where animals are fed a diversity of organic foods close to what they would enjoy in their natural habitat (not processed foods or proteins from other animals as fish are given chicken meat and all those horror stories). As with anything I eat, I want to know where it has grown and in which kind of conditions.But upon asking grasshopper breeders to tell me what they feed their insects they said it was a business secret. The Meertens’ farm seems to be the most ‘open’ in revealing that fresh grass is at least one of the foods given to the grasshoppers. While Marian Peters on the otherhand was more than happy to give a few clues saying that the locusts love to eat: any forms of wheat, wheat crackers, muesli, bran, oats. Also interesting to see that Wageningen Institute had been conducting experiments showing how the chemical composition of locusts can be changed through what they eat. Whether the foods given to the grasshoppers are organic or GM is another question. Though the Bugs organic food distributed by Kreca ensures that its bugs are organically raised. Notwithstanding the box of 120 jumping penultimate locusts (adolescent ones, without wings) and 300 freeze-dried adults still leaving a lot of questions unanswered, I was keen to give this possible food of the Dutch future a go.
Live Locusts
First: I fed the grasshoppers some oats, grass, marigold, poppy leaves and other fresh greens for a few days. When ready to cook, carefully collect all the grasshoppers from their cardboard box and put them in a jar. NB: Never let them die before cooking, the grashopper decomposes very rapdily, making them insipid.
Second: put the jar of grasshoppers in the fridge before roasting. This slows their metabolism and are relatively unconscious when you put them in the oven. While they are in the fridge warm up the oven to 100 degrees. Try throwing all the grasshoppers into the oven in one go. With the blast of heat they will wake up, but die almost immediately (do be careful and keep you kitchen doors and windows closed — some may escape from the oven, though as they are wingless and a bit stoned it’s relatively easy to catch them). I have tried boiling them as well, but the result is tasteless and the exoskeleton becomes unpleasantly rubbery.
Third: Roast until slightly crispy (around 30 to 40 minutes). Do not over-roast as they become completely dry and taste of laquered wood shavings. After roasting, briefly sauté in sunflower oil. Serve as is with salt or even with some light honey (acacia) as a snack. So the story goes, St John the baptist lived off locusts and wild honey during his exile in the wilderness.
Freeze-dried locusts, in dandelion and almond biscuits
The freeze-dried adults are much larger than their younger counter parts. They are freeze-dried so as to be able to preserve them for much longer (up to a year, but it is recommended to keep them in a cool, dark place). The downside is that this is very expensive. A tub of 35 locusts costing somewhere between 9 and 11 euros.
First: remove wings and any left over legs (the adult legs are very sharp and have several spikes)
Second: Choose if you want to keep the head on. I removed the head, and crumbled the rest of the thorax and abdomen.
Add the slightly crumbled thorax and abdomens to the biscuit batter. In this case I used a batter made of flour, almond meal, almond extract, egg yolks, sugar and yellow dandelion or other flower leaves.
Create a little burrow and insert the head before baking. Add wings as a garnish after baking. The wings can be eaten but a bit non descript.
*I use grasshoppers and locusts intermittently, as the Dutch word for grasshoppers and locusts have the same name ’sprinkhanen’ (as with lobsters/crayfish: kreeft and with snail/slugs: slakken).
