Friends,
I guess it was Sally Fallon who first drew my attention to the sorrow
of unrequited wastefulness. Sally pointed out that the great Hindi
culture that everyone believes is strictly vegetarian actually gets a
substantial amount of animal protein from the weevils in their
grains. Later, a book I picked up at BIONEERS, MAN EATING BUGS,
showed people all over the planet joyfully consuming traditional
dishes made from everything from grubs to tarantulas. I realized at
that time that there were cultural boundaries that I have not been
able to transcend, that invisible shackles restrict my freedom to
fully harvest my garden. That although I made great efforts to gather
anything biological for the compost pile and square knotted short
strands of salmon colored bailing twine together to make tiedowns for
the truck, I was letting precious organically produced protein go to
waste in my garden; although pests are seldom a chronic problem in my
garden, it's undeniable that buckets of bean beetle and potato bug
larva were going untilized and, some seasons, there must be BUSHELS
of Japanese beetles that noone, man nor beast seems to be the least
interested in cycling through their digestion although, they, too,
have been fed their own choice of the freshest of biodynamically
grown morsels. Unfortunately, I'm still there. I'm still stuck. Why
is it that I'll eat shrimp and crayfish and, on occasion, even
lobster, but would not consider munching similar dryland creaters,
have never even tasting a grilled yellow-winged grasshopper?
I shed the most tears for the pounds of cabbage loopers that cycle
unharvested through my brassicas each year. I've never eaten one, not
even the ocassional one that floats on top of the broccoli steaming
water. How different it would be if one july morning I could grab the
stainless colander from the kitchen counter and shout joyfully to the
family as I strut through the screen door, Get the water boiling!
The loopers are on again! It's true, the loopers appear to lose
their magic green when boiled, but I guess one thing that makes it
especially sad that they are seen as a pest and not as a bonus is
that they would be so much easier to prepare than the some of the
other high protein garden creatures that also are spared the skillet,
the 4-leggeds like the groundhog, the rabbit, and, why not?, the
lowly vole.
What an accomplishment in agricultural layering, to harvest a high
protein crop for the family that holds no value in the market place
and saves spending controls for controls for delicacies that others
take to be a pest!
Unfortunately, I'm still wearing the handcuffs formed by the food
choices of my own ancestors and, while I'll never use Bt-ready crops,
I'm always Bt ready myself.
If you've ever pondered this same dilemma, you might enjoy the
program and recipe below:
From a webpage for a forthcoming PBS show FOOD for the ANCESTORS,
about the Day of the Dead in Mexico and the foods associated with
that celebration
http://www.pbs.org/foodancestors/main.html
SALSA DE GUSANOS DE MAGUEY (WORM SAUCE)
(yum-yum)
Click to see Bruce eat worms - In Real Player
Ingredients for Mexican cuisine are now widely available throughout
the United States and Canada. Many supermarkets now carry sauces and
even chiles used in many dishes. Dried pasilla and ancho chiles might
be available in packages. Asian markets also carry ingredients used
in Mexican cookery, such as cilantro and some chiles. If you are
lucky enough to live in an area where people of Mexican extraction
live, then such exotic items such as gusanos de maguey or chapulines
might be available. If you cannot find any of these ingredients, then
a trip to Mexico is in order.
In case you don't want to eat the delectable dried and cured
caterpillers from century plants (gusanos de maguey) themselves, here
is a sauce that gives their flavor to any dish.
Insects were a major part of the Pre-Columbian diet. Mexicans were
deficient in animal proteins because they had so few domesticated
animals. Therefore, insects were an important food supplement.
Insect-eating lives on in many parts of the country and it one of the
ways by which Mexicans retain their traditions.
5 pasilla chiles, soaked, seeded and deveined
5 ancho chiles, soaked, seeded and deveined water to cover
4-6 large dried gusanos de maguey (caterpillers from the maguey
plant), soaked in 1 cup hot water
5 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried shrimp
Soak the pasilla and ancho chiles in water. When soft enough to
puree, seed and devein. Soak gusanos in hot water until soft. Place
all the ingredients in a food processor or blender. Process until
smooth. Heat before serving. Goes well with any tortilla-bases dish.
Gusanos de maguey are hard to find in North America, so this recipe
can be adapted to give some elements of their flavor. Simply
substitute 1 large tomato for the gusanos and about 1 T mescal,
