Barnyard Grass likes damp soil and can tolerated some flooding

Note seeds turning purple

The first time I saw Barnyard Grass was decades ago in a real barnyard near a drain spout. I was with forager Dick Deuerling who identified it for me. The next time I saw the plant it was nearly a different color completely. Purple. Very confusing.

Barnyard Grass, also called Cockspur Grass, is a hated weed around the world. It can mature in as little as 42 days producing some 40,000 seeds on each plant (good news for us.)  It is a severe problem in rice production with one plant per square foot reducing production 25%. It can reduce corn yields 20%. While it likes damp places it is also not bothered by elevation and will grow to 5,000 feet.

A native of Asia Barnyard Grass is found not only around the world but throughout North America save for Alaska, the Northern tier of Canada and Newfoundland. And although it might be from somewhere else Native Americans knew a good thing when they saw it. The Cocopa, Paiute and Tubatulabal used it for food and stored it for winter use. The Yuma, however, really liked it. They pounded the seeds, winnowed them, ground them and made a meal and mush out of it. They also preferred to cook fish with the grain.

This Barn Yard Grass Has Straw-Like Awns.

Botanically the grass is Echinochloa crus-galli, eh-kye-no-KLOE-uh  kruss-GAL-eye. That pronunciation is close to Greek. Anglicized one also hears ek-ih-NOK-loh-uh  krus GAL-ee. Echinochloa is two Greek words meaning Grass Hedgehog (porcupine.) This is because the seed head can have awns, straw like bristles sticking out of the seed head, or just one at the end, or none.  Crus-galli — also without the hyphen — is dead Latin for Cock Spur, again a reference to the seed spike, see below.

Seeds and base can be purplish

There are about 20 species in the genus with great variability. One has purple stripes on its leaves. But one thing they do have in common, or don’t depending on how you want to say it, is barnyard grass does not have a ligule. It is the only common summer grass with no hairs or membranes at the collar. What does that mean?

The Fall Panicum Has A White Ligule

Grasses are nearly as bad as mushrooms to sort out. They’ve an argot all their own and field books are wildly expensive often costing thousands of dollars. Usually when a blade bends away from the stem right where it bends there is a small vertical structure, like a collar or a tuft of hair. All common grasses have it except the genus Echinochloa. It’s absence is a major identifying characteristic of the genus. For example, the Fall Panicum, right, resembles Barnyard Grass but has a white legule.  The Echinochloa crus-galli below has no ligule. Barnyard Grass also resembles Junglerice, Echinochloa colona, but has no purple bands on leaves.

Barn Yard Grass Does Not Have A Ligule

Here is a research tip when you’re trying to figure out what grass you have in front of you. Do a google search using the botanical name you think it might be then add the name: Umberto Quattrocchi. He’s a grass expert with definitive publications, and fortunately not a common name. Usually you will get an except from from of his (rightfully) expensive books on the first page of your search. Once you go to the reference you sometimes have to page up or down a page or two because his entries tend to be detail heavy and long. But it is a way to access expert material on grasses without spending thousands.

Green Deane’s Itemized Plant Profile: Barnyard Grass

IDENTIFICATION: Echinochloa crus-galli: A summer annual to five feet. Seedlings hairless, leaf sheaths often tined red or maroon at the base, often growing outward before turning up. Stems thick, often branched at the lower nodes, may be tinged red to maroon at the base.  Leaves four to 20 inches, 1/4 to 1.25 inches wide. Leaves have a distinct white mid-vein. Near the stem end the vein becomes keeled. There may be some short hairs at the leaf base. No ligule. Flowers knot-like. Seed head a terminal panicle, four to 16 inches long, green to purple, may have individual spikelets with a long terminal awn (like a thin piece of straw from a broom at the end of the seed spike.) Lower branches of flower spread farther apart than the upper branches. The head can be erect or drooping, sometimes purplish.

TIME OF YEAR: Flowers June to October, seeds in fall, germinates from late winter to early spring. In warm areas the process can be continuous throughout the year.

ENVIRONMENT: Roadside, ditches, irrigated crop fields, pastures, orchards, vineyards, margins or ponds and rice fields. Tolerates poor drainage and flooding, usually found in wetlands and wet places, rich soil, swampy ground, brackish marshes, swamps, disturbed sites, poorly drained areas et cetera. Intolerant of dense shade.  Can take up to 80% of the nitrogen out of the soil.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Winnowed seeds used as a staple grain, parched, roasted, boiled, ground into flour. Young shoots are eaten as a vegetable, raw or cooked. Roots are boiled to temper indigestion in the Philippines. Seeds can be popped like popcorn. In Japan it is used to make macaroni and dumplings. Seeds are roasted and used as a caffeine-less coffee substitute.

The Cinnabar Moth Lays Eggs on Pyrrolizidine-Rich Plants

How much pyrrolizidine is too much? Or perhaps the better question is how little is too much?

Cinnabar Lava Toxic With Pyrrolizidine

First, what is pyrrolizidine? Pyrrolizidine (pie-row-LIES-ah-dine) is an alkaloid which is a chemical many plants make that is incompatible with mammalian and avian life. Basically it is how those plants, as a group long-term, keep from being eaten into extinction. It’s a strategy of Eat Us And You Die. They do that by damaging the liver.

Pyrrolizidine through low-level, long-term use can cause veno-occulusive disease (it clogs up small veins in the liver causing fluid retention.) Large amounts can also bring on quick and acute symptoms. A 49-year old woman affected by it was taking comfrey-pepsin pills for four months with an average daily dose of 15 mg per kilo of body weight. And while I refer to pyrrolizidine in the singular there are several hundred in as many plants but they act in a similar way.

Most of the plants with pyrrolizidine we don’t eat. However, there are six we should concern ourselves with. Two are used a herbal medicines, one is used as a potherb, one as a potential potherb, one as a spice, and one is a tempting look alike for an edible.

Toxic Senecio glabellus

I became interested in pyrrolizidine when I realized that three local plants in my area had it. One is definitely toxic, Senecio glabellus. The plant caught my attention because it has a similar season as wild mustards/radishes and from a distance resembles them. A closer look at the blossom shows it clearly is not a mustard. The petals are all wrong, daisy-ish not a four-petal cross. But its fleshy leaves lobe like a mustard and look very tempting. Odd to say but the plant just plain looks like it should be edible. It is not. Its flavor is good (note I did not consume it. I tasted it, a different activity by far. DO NOT EAT IT.) It is also well-armed with pyrrolizidine, some 0.2%. In lab tests it kills rats. That got pyrrolizidine on my mind.

Emilia: Edibility Questionable

It arose again when the question was asked is the Florida Tasselflower edible, Emilia fosbergii. I know someone — late 20’s — who has tried its leaves once with no apparent ill-effects. It was a few leaves raw, ten if I remember correctly, but not a steady diet of said, which appears to be important. Its relative, Emilia sonchifolia, which also has pyrrolizidine, is a common green in Java. Leaves of the not-yet-flowering plant in Java are eaten in salads, soups or steamed, most commonly used as a side dish. I know of a woman not yet 30 who ate many Tasselflower blossoms as a child while playing with her dolls. She has on-going liver issues.

Dog Fennel: Edibility questionable

Our next local plant with pyrrolizidine is Dog Fennel, Eupatorium capillifolium, often used as external medicine and a good fire starter. I never considered it an edible until I heard of park rangers in the Everglades using it as a spice in their salads. Then I had two students — again in their 20’s — who told me for years they had been mincing the hair-thin leaves and adding them to mash potatoes for flavor. As a spice, or an occasional green, perhaps some pyrrolizidine can be tolerated but still is not wise. (I mention age only because I have many decades of enjoying dry red wine behind me so who knows how my liver might react to some pyrrolizidine. I avoid it.)

Comfrey is “Unapproved”

The two other common plants with pyrrolizidine are comfrey and anything in the Borage family. Borage is on the German Commission E’s list as “unapproved” though the total alkaloid content is very low, less than 0.001%. Comfrey has been blamed for liver damage in humans and at least one infant death. It’s alkaloid content varies but is around 0.25%

Another plant used more in the past than now is the dye alkannet/alkanet, once used for lipstick coloring and in the greater Borage family. It is 0.12% alkaloid and is available over the internet. Other common plants with pyrrolizidine are Coltsfoot and Forget-Me-Nots.

As foragers the issue of toxicity is a relevant one. Yet toxicity is more a continuum than a line in the sand. Onions have some pyrrolizidine, comfrey a lot, and not all forms of pyrrolizidine are toxic. You can poison yourself with onions, though it is not easy. Then there is daily dosage. Is comfrey tea once a year bad? How about some dog fennel as a spice or Emilia as an occasional side dish? Between totally safe and totally toxic sometimes there is a fog bank.

As one might infer pyrrolizidine is a significant issue with livestock, particularly in northwest United States where pyrrolizidine can also work its way into cows’ milk and chicken eggs. Plants with pyrrolizidine can also contaminate human crops, such as grains. A 25-year-old book on topic, Naturally Occurring Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids, sells for (at this update*) $450 not including shipping. For more information and a list of common plants humans might run into with pyrrolizidine click here.

*When I first wrote this article in November 2011 the books was selling for $375.

Japanese Knotweed in Fall Flower

Japanese Knotweed gets no respect. Nearly everywhere it grows it’s listed as a prolific, noxious, invasive, dangerous bad-for-the-world, the-sky-is-falling weed. Oh by the way, it’s edible. Might be even really healthy for you…. pesky weeds have that habit.

Young Shoots in Spring

Japanese Knotweed is listed by the World Conservation Union as one of the world’s worst invasive species. Perhaps it should be planted in countries where starvation is annual. Introduced into Great Britain by 1825 Japanese Knotweed has been on the decimation list for more than 30 years and has to be disposed at landfills licensed to handle the dreaded edible. In fact they spend some two billion pounds to combat it annually, which as of this writing is about three billion dollars a year. It increased the construction cost of the 2012 Olympic stadium by some 70 million pounds. Japanese Knotweed is also “invading” New Zealand, Australia, and Tasmania. It arrived in North America in the late 180os and is officially found in 39 of the 50 United States, probably more, and six provinces of Canada. It’s an invasive weed in Ohio, Vermont, West Virginia, New York, Alaska, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Washington. About the only place where they are not upset with the plant is where it’s native, southeast Asia. What do they know the rest of the world doesn’t? It is said that Japanese Knotweed out lives the gardener and the garden.

Knotweed Creats a Knot

Knotweed, in the Buckwheat family, is not liked in western nations because it grows around three feet a month, sends roots down some 10 feet, grows through concrete, damaging roads, dams, buildings and just about anything made by man. It’s a pain in the asphalt. Forages take advantage of it eating — raw or cooked — young shoots, growing tips of larger plants and unfurled leaves on the stalk and branches. Many folks say it tastes like rhubarb but I think a lemony green is more accurate, crunchy and tender. For the health conscious it is a major source of resveratrol and Vitamin C … a noxious weed AND very healthy. Tsk…Tsk… The California Department of Food and Agriculture and the book Cornucopia II both say the rhizomes are edible. No references are given as to how to cook them nor have I tried. Usually the roots are used medicinally. Giant Knotweed, Polygonum sachalinense (Fallopia sachalinensis) is similarly consume except its fruit is eaten as well, or stored in oil. Incidentally, the Giant Knotweed was “discovered” on Sakhalin Island, north of Japan, by Dr. H Weyrich, surgeon on the Russian expedition ship Vostok commanded by Captain Lieutenant Rimsky-Korsakov, older brother of the composer N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov… it’s a small world afterall…

Note branch bends at nodes like an Eastern Redbud

Botanically take your pick: Japanese Knotweed is known as Fallopia japonica, Polygonum cuspidatum, and Reynoutria japonica. In Europe they prefer Fallopia japonica (named for Gabriello Fallopia, 16th century Italian anatomist who “discovered” fallopian tubes. Japonica means Japan.  In North America it is known as Polygonum cuspidatum, which makes a lot more sense to me. I see nothing fallopian tubish about the plant whereas Polygonum (pol-LIG-on-um) means many joints and the plant does have that. Cuspidatum (kuss-pid-DAY-tum) means sharply or stiffly pointed, and that it is.

Other names names include fleeceflower, Himalayan fleece vine, monkeyweed, Huzhang, Tiger Stick, Hancock’s curse, elephant ears, pea shooters, donkey rhubarb, sally rhubarb, Japanese bamboo, American bamboo, and Mexican bamboo. The Japanese call it itadori (????) which is from Chinese and mean “tiger walking stick” or “tiger stick.” Best guess, and my thanks to Ala Bobb for the insight, is that the stick has stripes like a tiger. Sometimes it is called itodori which means “thread stick” a reference to the the thready flower. Two other names, in Chinese, are, ?? “pain take” and ?? “board take”  In Engish we would reverse them, “take pain” and “take board.”

Lastly there is an ethnobotanical lesson in Japanese Knotweed: The Cherokee ate the cooked leaves. Shall we thus call it a Native American food? There are several examples of imported plants being adapted by the native population, no fools they. Those get reported as Native American food without the “when” being reported. Folks just assume they were eating or using said before the Europeans arrived.  Black Medic is another example. If I remember correctly it first came to North America around 1912, just a century ago. But it is listed as a Native American food because some western tribes did eat it once they knew what it was. It’s the same with a ground cover imported in the 1930s. The lesson is just because the natives ate a particular food it does not mean it was around before outsiders arrived. It’s kind of like saying chocolate pudding was an Aborigines’ food.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile: Japanese Knotweed

Rhizome runners can extend 60 feet

IDENTIFICATION: Polygonum cuspidatum: A semi-woody perennial, fast growing, hollow, bamboo-like stems forming dense, leafy thickets, woody with age. Young shoots are red. Leaves simple, toothless, hairless, alternating, broadly ovate with a pointed tip, 3 to 6 inches long, 2 to 4½ inches wide, on a long leaf stem. Flowers branching in spike-like clusters, individual flowers are 1/8 inch across, white to greenish or pinkish, with 5 petals, 8 stamens. Male and female flowers separate (dioecious.) Female flowers can produce small 3-angled black-brown fruit. Seed production is uncommon.

TIME OF YEAR: Purple shoots appear in spring, flowers late summer, early autumn.

ENVIRONMENT: Riverbanks, roadsides, moist, disturbed areas.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Young shoots, growing tips, young leaves boiled or steamed and eaten like asparagus, or chilled and served with a dressing. Can be used in pies. soups, aspics, sauces, jams, chutneys even wines. The roots, actually rhizomes, are sometimes eaten. It is good fodder for grazing animals, including cattle, sheep, goats, horses and donkeys. Old stems have been used to make matches. It is high in oxalic acid so if you avoid spinach or rhubarb you should avoid knotweed.

Recipes from Herbalpedia

Japanese Knotweed Purée
Gather stalks, choosing those with thick stems. Wash well and remove all leaves and tips. Slice stems into 1-inch pieces, put into a pot and add ¾ cup sugar for every 5 cups of stems. Let stand 20 minutes to extract juices. Add only enough water to keep from scorching, about half a cup. Cook until pieces are soft, adding more water if necessary. They will cook quickly. When done, the Japanese Knotweed needs only to be mixed with a spoon. Add lemon juice to taste and more sugar if desired. Serve chilled for dessert just as it is, or pass a bowl of whipped cream. This purée is excellent spooned over vanilla ice cream or baked in a pie shell. Keeps well in the refrigerator and may be frozen for later use. (City Herbal)

Japanese Knotweed Bread
2 cups unbleached flour
½ cup sugar
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 egg
2 Tbsp salad oil
¾ cup orange juice
¾ cup chopped hazelnuts
1 cup sweetened Japanese Knotweed Purée
Preheat oven to 350F. Sift dry ingredients together into a large bowl. Beat the egg white with the oil and orange juice. Add along with hazelnuts and purée to dry ingredients. Do not mix until all ingredients are added, and blend only enough to moisten. Do not over mix. Spoon gently into buttered 91/2-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan. Bake about 1 hour or until a straw or cake tester inserted in the center comes out dry. Cool by removing from pan and placing it on a rack. For muffins, spoon into buttered muffin tins and bake about 25 minutes. (A City Herbal)

Insect Cuisine by Shochi Uchiyama

On this site are several articles about edible insects (among other creatures.) Below is an expanding collection of more than 50 edible insects. I plan to localize it. There is, depending on who’s counting,  an estimated 1,462 species of edible insects.  While the numbers fluctuate this includes about 235 species of butterflies and moths, 344 species of beetles, 313 species of ants, bees, and wasps and 239 species of grasshoppers, crickets and cockroaches… yes cockroaches… Insects are commonly eaten in 13 countries by two billion people. They provide not only economical and excellent nutrition but new flavors and textures as well. I personally have eaten several insects below, in one form or another, some times in juvenile form or adult, a few both, usually intentionally.

The list has a world view though the families of edible insects most often found in North American where I am based are: Grasshoppers (Orthoptera acrididae) crickets (Orthoptera gryllidae) metallic wood-borers (Coleoptera buprestidae) long-horn beetles (Coleoptera cerambycidae) weevils (Coleoptera curculionidae) mealworns (Coleoptera tenebrionidae) bees (Hymenoptera apidae) and ants (Hymenoptera formicidae.)

While there are exceptions the following insects are usually avoided: Adult insects that either sting or bite; insects that are covered with hair; brightly colored insects; disease-carrying insects; any insect that gives off a strong odor and spiders, which are not insects… too many legs…  (and when the site was upgraded the photos were displaced. Still working to get them sorted out.)

Acorn Grub

Acorn Grubs:  Inside many acorns in the fall is a small grub, cream colored, tan, a reddish brown head, no legs and fat in the middle. It eats bitter acorn meat but is not bitter itself. The grub can be eaten raw — chewy — or cooked, buttery with no hint of oak or tannins. Laid by one of several beetles, the grub will grow in comparison to the size of the acorn. Eventually it will chew a small hole in the leathery shell and squeeze out. As it is pliable the hole will be much smaller than the grub but the grub will squeeze through. Then a mother moth will come along and put her eggs in through the hole left by the grub. Those grow into a worm with legs. Those are edible, too according to entomologist I know. One more thing: If you cook the grubs do it slowly or break them open. They can explode. To read more about acorn grubs click here. To see my video click here.

Agave Worms

Agave Worm: Actually larvae, they were never associated with booze until 1950 when they were added to mescal as a marketing gimmick. Now they are associated with Tequila which is technically a mescal product. Also known as the maguey worm, they are the larvae of either the Hypopta agavis moth or the Aegiale hesperiaris. When not pickled in alcohol they are coral in color but fade when preserved in methanol. The “worms” are a common food without Tequila in Mexico

Best parched or roasted

Ants, Carpenter: While the name might fit they should have been called syrup ant, or sap ants. Some 99% of their diet is liquid, usually from aphids or vegetation. They’re called carpenter ants because they build nests in wood. In the process of hollowing out a dead log or a damp house support they leave a pile of sawdust. Among the largest ants in North America then can be any color but are usually black, sometimes red, sometimes a combination. They are smooth bodies and release a foul odor when disturbed, hence eating them raw, while possible, is not the best means of consumption. They also nip harmlessly but annoyingly. Native Americans parched them. They would make a large screening basket out of willow then put the entire ant’s nest and hot coals in the basket then winnow out the ants, ashes, parts of the nest and coals.

Escamoles

Ants, Escamoles: Escamoles are the larvae of the large and venomous black Liometopum ant, which makes its home in the dried, woody parts of maguey and agave plants. The eggs resemble cottage cheese with a buttery, nutty taste. As one can imagine the large, toxic ants don’t give up the eggs easily making them expensive plus they are available only seasonally.  Called “Insect Caviar” they are often served in guacamole or sauteed with butter, onion, cilantro and epazote. They can be up to 60% protein.

Leaf Cutter Ants

Ants, Flying: Tequila is not the only thing served with salt and lime. Called Sompopos de Mayo in Guatemala Flying Ant queens are collected and roasted on a clay griddle with salt and lime juice. The flavor is on par with  buttery pork rinds. Available in May, which is the beginning of the rainy season, only the back end is cooked and eaten. One can buy them already separated by vendors.

Honeypot Ant

Ants, Honeypot: Found in areas like South America and Australia they were a delicacy for the Aboriginals. Honeypot ants are an ant’s solution to storage problems. The big-belly ants are fed nectar causing their abdomens to swell. The nectar-like substance is then used to feed other ant. The problem is ants aren’t a collective of dummies. The Honeypot Ant are buried deep in the hard packed earth, some three to five feet down and you have to contend with irritated ants every foot of the way. But in a time when there was no sugar or candy Honeypot Ants were the original treat, a comfort food even if it does have legs that wiggle. They are closely related to carpenter ants.

Leaf Cutter Ant

Ants, Leafcutter: Thirty-eight or forty-seven species of ant are called leafcutters, depending on who’s counting. They are also called Hormigas Culonas in Spanish which means ant with a big butt. I never could figure that out because their heads are much larger than their buts. Leafcutter ants use foliage to grow a fungus for food. The species are divided into two genera, Atta and Acromyrmex. If you’re wondering, the Attas have three pairs of spines and a smooth exoskeleton. The Acromyrmex have four pairs of spines and a rough exoskeleton. They can have nests 100 feet across containing some eight million ants. Bon appetit. Their flavor is like a bacon-ish pistachio. In Colombia they are the local “popcorn” at movie theaters.

Lemon Ants already plated

Ants, Lemon:  For such a little ant it has a large name: Myrmelachista schumanni. Found in the South American jungle their claim to fame, other than tasting like lemons, is they exude a kind of herbicide — formic acid — that kill all plants in a large area except the one tree they nest in, the Duroia hirsuta. Wait, you say, isn’t formic acid the acid makes fire ants fiery? Yep, but the Lemon Ants don’t sting you with it and that is why they taste lemony. They prefer the Duroia hirsuta because its branches are hollow thus they are out of the weather and protected.  One Lemon Ant’s nest is thought to be 807 years old and three million strong. Tiny, you break off or open a branch and have at them, a jungle treat.

Weaver Ants Bite

Ants, Weaver: There’s good news and there’s bad news. They are edible. They also bite. Take a look at the picture. Several ants are tugging on a leaf to make a nest with. See those jaws holding the leaf? They can bite you, too. So, you either collect them carefully and cook away or… you grab the ant from the front, crushing it and eat the back end. These ant eat other insects so they are aggressive. They have been used at least 1,600 years as biological controls in and around gardens and the like. Weaver ants are completely arboreal, read you will find them on plants, in shrubs and on trees, not in the ground. Their eggs are sold in Thailand and the Philippines and taste creamy. The adults are sour and have been mixed into rice for flavoring. One particular species in Australia, Oecophylla smaragdina, is called the Green Ant because is back end is green. They bite but not badly, irritating rather than painful. One opens the nest and reaches in for the eggs. You crush the eggs and ants together and down they go. The lemony flavor and aroma clear congestion and the like. They also are used to make a lemonade like drink. For some unknown reason the ants do not get bacterial infections, which is of interest to scientists. In Asia weaver ants are red.

Wood Ants’ Nest

Ants, Wood: I suppose one could eat adult wood ants but its their eggs that are usually on the menu. Also called Formica Ants, they make large debris nest mostly in forests. A large Wood Ant’s nest can be raided a couple of times a year without harm. On a sunny day put a tarp on the ground. Put branches and the like on the tarp then fold the tarp over the branches leaving a sunny spot in the middle and shade around the edges. Dig into the nest and dump the ants, eggs and debris into the middle of the tarp. The ants will carry the eggs away from the middle to the shade where you can collect them. Eaten raw or cooked their flavor is similar to shrimp.

Bamboo Worms

Bamboo Worms: Find the Grass Moth, find its larvae, and you have a Thailand treat, Bamboo Worms. Like the Agave Worm above, not really a worm, it is usually served fried. These are a gourmet treat. You can buy them from vendors on the street or dried and bagged for international shipments. During their life cycle the larva eat their way up through several sections of the bamboo and when ready to emerge they return to the bottom to eat their way out. Most locals know when this is to happen and the worms become food.

Bee Larva

Bees: Yes, the ones that occasionally sting you because you irritated it. While adult bees are eaten, usually roasted, sometimes ground into flour, more popular is bee larva. They are baked, fried or deep fried. Thus cooked bee lava become flaky, their flavor nutty to caramel. Pallets disagree with opinions on taste ranging from sunflower seeds to shrimp to pork cracklings. Cooked bee larva are also often covered in chocolate and sold as a gourmet item, particularly in Mexico.

Big Fella Bogon Moth

Bogong Moth, Agrotis infusa, is a migrating night-flying moth in Australia. They gather in high elevation caves in the summer months in huge quantities, a fact not missed by the Aboriginals. They would travel from the lowlands to eat the tasty, high protein — 24% — fatty food that is also high in potassium. The moths were either killed or stupefied by the heat and smoke then their bodies collected. After collection the moths were cooked in sand and stirred in hot ashes. This burned off the wings and legs. They were then sifted through a net to remove their heads. Then they were eaten. Sometimes the cooked moths were ground into paste and made into cakes. “Bogong” may mean “Big Fella.” Aussie tucker cafe Ironbark in Canberra serves a brandy-flavoured bogong moth fritter with boab root.

Maggoty Cheese, Casa Marzu

Casa Marzu: Perhaps this should not be included but… It’s a Pecorino cheese that has been allowed to rot and become permeated with fly maggots, specifically Piophila casei. The sheep-milk cheese not only gets infested with maggots but they also digest the cheese and relieve themselves in the cheese, adding the flavor. Actually the acid in their digestive tract breaks down the fat in the cheese. The result is a smooth, very strong cheese. The cheese is eaten, maggots and all. The European Economic Union made it illegal for a while but it is now viewed as a “traditional” food and thus legal. Incidentally, the maggots can jump up to six inches.

Centipedes on a stick

Centipedes: Generally said centipedes are preferred over millipedes. Centipedes, however, have pincers and can bite but once the head is removed they are tiny crustaceans for consumption after cooking. Millipede definitely have to be cooked and are found as a street food in Asia. Some millipedes some have little hydrogen cyanide glands and can exude foul smelling liquid if handled. That’s why the street vendors charge the prices they do. Centipedes are insect eaters, millipedes are vegetarians. Centipedes have one set of legs per segments, millipedes have two sets of legs per segments.

Cicada

Cicada, Katydids: There’s some 2,500 species of Cicadas, which is dead Latin for “tree cricket.” Greeks call them tzitzikas after the sound they make. Periodical cicadas, found only in the Eastern US,  can live underground for up to 17 years before emerging and molting into adults. Other Cicada are annual. Right after molting they are soft and tasty. Female cicadas are plumper and preferred fare. In some species the Cicada can get up to six inches long. They are usually skewered and deep fried, or fried. Incidentally, in Ancient Greece the upper classes preferred Cicadas to locust. Local Cicadas can be green, brown or black.

Deep-Fried Cockroach

Cockroach: Yep, La Cucuracha. They are not only very edible but very clean. Of course, the main idea is to raise them intentionally and feed them a healthy diet such as fresh fruits and vegetables. It takes at least 48 hours to clean out their digestive system. Not the brightest of insects they can live several days without a head, eventually dying from lack of water. They can be eaten toasted, fried, sauteed, or boiled. Don’t eat them raw. Large hissing cockroaches taste like greasy chicken.  I have not tried Florida’s hissing palmetto bugs yet. They smell bad when alive. I’ll let you know.

Fried Crickets

Crickets are probably the most widely consumed insect. Even American Natives were known to roast them up along with grasshoppers. The natives would dig a relatively deep hole in a field and put wood in it. Then they would drive the insects in the field towards the hole. Once the insects were in the hole the fire was lit. When the flames died down they had a bug in. Crickets are about as inoffensive as an insect can get. They are eaten fried, sauteed, boiled, and roasted. Don’t overlook their relatives, the mole crickets.  Also see Kamaro.

Egg batter for dragonflies

Dragonfly and Damselfly: Do you know how to tell the difference? Damselflies fold up their wings, Dragonflies do not. They are eaten in Indonesia and China, larval and adult form. In Bali they are caught with sticks smeared with a sticky sap. Eaten boiled, fried, or grilled on the barbie. Wings are usually removed before cooking unless going over the charcoal. Here they are being dipped in egg before cooking. Boiled in coconut milk with ginger and garlic is also a favored means of preparation. Photo courtesy of Girl Meets Bug.

Choice Dung Beetle

Dung Beetle: The name says it all. They live under fresh cow dung. Before you hurl your supper let’s ponder this for a moment. Commercial dung beetles are cleaned, dehydrated and seasoned. While indeed inhabiting cow patties those cows are living off off organic grass and rice plants and the patty is just predigested fodder. Despite their humble beginnings dung beetles are among the most tasty of insects, crunchy and full of protein. Usually they’re fried. In South America white dung beetles are on the menu and are often cooked with pork and vegetables. “Cleaning” means their abdomens are removed before cooking. Photo courtesy of Girl Meets Bug.

Fly Pupae

Fly, House: You’re not going to want to hear this but the common house fly is like so many edible insects. Its pupae resemble red capsules and have a fatty acid similar to fish oil. Eating them provides a bit of crunch with a rich flavor, some say like blood pudding. They can be parboiled and fried, or just fried. Given the habit of some flies it best to raise your own on wholesome fly food.

Eaten raw or roasted

Golden Orb Spider, Giant Wood Spider:  Among the few spiders that are eaten is Nephila maculata, found in warm areas of the Pacific. Here in the southern U.S.  we have a relative, Nephila clavipes called the Banana Spider. Will have to try one when the opportunity presents itself. The Nephila maculata is eaten raw or roasted (sealed in a green bamboo tube over fire until the tube is blackened. The spiders split open.)  The flavor, with salt, is a cross between a raw potato and lettuce with a peanut butter after taste. A close relative to the Nephila is also eaten, the tent-web spider, Cyrtophora moluccensis. While nutrition and flavor are factors so, too, is size. All of these spiders are on the large size making them worth the calories expended to collect them. Adult female Nephila have about three grams of protein each. Don’t confuse the Nephila with a toxic spider of the same common name from South America, the Phoneutria fera, which looks like a skinny tarantula. They don’t look alike at all but have the same common name. The Nephila is called the Banana Spider because the back end often is yellow. The Phoneutria is called the Banana Spider because it hitches rides north on bunches of bananas and is poisonous.

Grasshoppers Galore

Grasshopper: Not all grasshoppers are edible. Look for solid colored ones, black, green or brown. Multicolored ones can be toxic, as is the huge lubber here in Florida. In Mexico  grasshoppers, called chapulines, are roasted then eaten with chili and lime. Native American did the same thing with grasshoppers as they did crickets, drive them into a deep dug hole in the middle of the field with wood in it then light a quick fire and have roasted hoppers. They are a good source of protein and calcium. In Africa the Nsenene grasshopper is a Ugandan delicacy. Some farmers eat grasshoppers raw after removing the guts.

Tomato and Tobacco Hornworms

Hornworm:  Tomato and Tobacco Hornworms can be fried but there is a word of caution. The plants they are usually found on, tomato and tobacco leaves, are not good for humans to eat. So unless you raise the hornworms on a specific diet wild hornworms have to be either starved for a few days or fed food they like and we can eat. Fortunately, green peppers fits that need perfectly. Their flavor is a combination of tomatoes, shrimp, and crab. If it has a red horn is a tobacco worm, black horn is tomato worm. You would have thought they would have reversed that. Entomologists are apparently no more logical than botanists. To read more, click here.

June Bugs

June Bug: June bugs (Phyllophaga) are a fairly safe bug for anyone to start with because there are no toxic look-alikes and they tend to eat inoffensive stuff, read organic matter. They can also be eaten as a beetle or larva. I’m sure you’ve seen the larval stage. You turned over a spade of soil and a large larva curled into a C. That’s a June bug.  The flavor is on the buttery, walnut side. Native Americans roasted them on coals. We can fry them up, or if you have enough, throw them in the hot air popcorn popper. Remove legs and wings before eating. Those parts just don’t digest well. Green June bugs is a similar species and also edible. One way to catch them is to shine a bright flashlight on a white sheet at night. Happy Collecting!

Kamaro is another name for Mole Cricket, a very ugly and expensive lawn pest… if you keep a lawn. In the Philippines where they are called Kamaro and are a sought-after delicacy, cooking styles range greatly, though there are a couple of themes. Some like to stir-fry them without any oil or flavoring, preferring a taste they give off that way, slightly like liver. Once cooked you can eat them totally but most folks prefer to take off claws, legs and wings. To read more about the Kamaro cum Mole Cricket click here.

Squeeze but not too hard, buning off hairs is optional

Kanni, which is sometimes included with the Mopane Worms below, is a different species and some 58% protein, 11% fat. It also has zinc, calcium, potassium, magnesium, sodium, iron and trace elements of copper and manganese. Scientifically Cirina forda, it’s a caterpillar collected from the sheabutter tree, or also from the ground around it. The larvae are squeezed of frass but not too hard or they lose an esteemed yellow liquid. They are then boiled and dried in the sun before eaten. Kanni is a widely used regional ingredient in vegetable soup.

Body Lice

Lice: It’s stock caricature to have monkeys pick lice off each other but what about people? In the Life, Letters and Travels of Father Pierre-Jean de Smet, S.J., 1801-1873  the Belgian Jesuit wrote on page 1002: “I have seen the Cheyennes, Snakes, Utes, etc., eat vermin off each other by the fistful. Often great chiefs would pull off their shirts in my presence without ceremony, and while they chatted, would amuse themselves with carrying on this branch of the chase in the seams. As fast as they dislodged the game, they crunched it with as much relish as more civilized mouths crack almonds and hazel-nuts or the claws of crabs and crayfishes.” In fact a louse has been found in human coprolite in Mexico that is 826 to 2512  years old. As they are blood consuming insects we might not want to eat them live theses days…  unless of course they are your own….

Locust Taco

Locust: The Ancient Greeks were of two opinions about eating locust. The upper classes preferred cicadas whereas the lower classes preferred locust. Shepherds ate locust. Politicians did not. Locust were also dried in the sun, ground into powder and mixed with milk.  Interestingly, by 100 AD, some 500 years later, the Greeks had abandoned eating insects. Locust are usually eaten dried without wings and legs. Natives in various place put the insects live in a long bag and shake them from one end to the other, back and forth. The legs and wings are then winnowed away and the bodies are put out in the sun to dry. Some desert people boiled locus in salt water first then dried them.

Longhorn Beetle Grub

Longhorn Beetle: There are some 20,000 species of Longhorn Beetles, and not all easy to sort out. We are interested in then ones that created their name. They are called “longhorn” because often their antennae are longer than their bodies. We have native Longhorn Beetles and a rather destructive import from Asia that destroys trees. Eating them is your civic duty. Look for a large grub with large chewing parts in wood. Willow, Popular and Cottonwoods are preferred as well as Maples in the northeast.

Mealworm and stages

Mealworm: Mealworms are perhaps the first non-leggy “insect” a person intentionally eats. Long used in the pet trade they have been favorite of entomophagists for a long time. Inoffensive, easy to raise, easy to cook, tasty. I started to raised them when I was caring for wildlife, from baby blue jays to infant squirrels. I still have a batch of them. Mealworms are the larva of the Darkling Beetle. They are often prepared boiled, sauteed, roasted, or fried. They have a nutty flavor. Edibility of the adult beetles is debatable. You might find one of my videos interesting.

Midge Fly

Midge fly: Locally they are called Blind Mosquitoes. Sometimes they become so thick that lakeside businesses have to spend a lot of money clean the outside of their buildings and cart millions of their little carcases away. Some places in Africa folks press them into solid blocks then cooked the blocks to make a food called Kunga Cake. The male Midge Flies are easy to identify by their fuzzy antenna. I used to feed then to a pet jumping spider.

Mopane Worm

Mopane Worms eat leaves of the Mopane Tree and are a multi-million dollar industry in Africa. The main problem is unpredictability of harvest which lasts for about three to seven weeks depending on the rainfall. Mopane worms, called “macimbi” and scientifically Imbrasia belina, fetch a higher market price than beef. The main thing to remember if you collect them alive is to squeeze the juice out of them before salting and drying. Once dry rehydrate them then cook in oil and garlic. Another way to process them is after the frass is squeezed out they are roasted on coals to burn off the hairs. Any red coloring indicates the worm has not be cooked enough. Then they are dried.

Get revenge by eating mosquito eggs.

Mosquito Eggs: Here’s your chance for revenge for all those times a mosquito has gotten past your defenses and took a blood donation. Very common in Mexico mosquito eggs are dried then roasted. You’ll often find them wrapped in a tortillas or served with a squeeze of lime or lemon.  The eggs are laid by mom mosquitoes in trees near lakes. Mosquito eggs are about one-sixteenth of an inch long, dark colored, and larger at one end Interested? A small bottle sells for about $50.

Pillbugs

Pillbug: These used to be a fairly common food in England and parts of Europe. Also known as sowbugs, roly polys, and  woodlice, they’re terrestrial crustaceans related to lobsters, crab and shrimp. The better tasting ones are the ones that roll into a little ball when disturbed. Two factoids: They change sex and don’t urinate. To read more about pillbugs click here.

Preying Mantis and tofu

Praying Mantis is the correct spelling though “preying” would have been accurate, too, in that it is an insect eater itself. They can range greatly in size. The same rule that applies to some plants applies to mantises: Young and tender. They are usually fried, as are Walking Sticks, and taste like a cross between shrimp and mushrooms.

Rhino Beetle’s Three Stages

Rhino Beetle: Setting aside the issue of size the Rhino Beetle is one of the strongest creatures on earth. When motivated it can lift 850 times its own weight. The beetle and its larvae are both eaten. The grub is high in protein, calcium, and phosphorous. Good sized, they are fried, grilled, roasted and stewed. Like Dragonflies they can also be cooked in coconut milk. Grub fat is used like butter, once clarified.

Sago Grubs

Sago Grubs: At least one palm weevil makes its edible way into North America, perhaps a couple more. The larvae of the palm weevil are esteemed wherever they are found, Florida to Malaysia to New Guinea. Sago grubs are often cooked coated with Sago flour and wrapped in Sago leaf. NOTE: that is the true Sago Palm, Metroxylon sagu, not the ornamental cycad called a sago palm [Cycas revoluta] which is very toxic to man and beast. The latter is also a cockroach high-rise. Personally I would avoid any bug found on a Cycas revoluta. Its toxin causes liver failure. Just make sure you have the right “Sago.”  Palm weevils that feed on the true Sago Palm have a bacon flavor and are like most palm grubs full of fat.

Young and tender Sapelli caterpillars

Sapelli Caterpillars, Imbrasia oyemensis, is considered a delicacy and one of the few green caterpillars on our list along with the hornworms. They are valued for their flavor and the fact a lot of them can be collected in a short amount of time, calories in calories out. They are small and firm, very suited to drying and preservation. The caterpillars fall from the Sapele Tree, Entandrophragma cylindricum, during the rainy season and at that time of year provide 75% of the protein of the Pygmies consume. Their name is also spelled “Sapele” and the tree they feed on Aboudikro.

Silkworms

Silk worm, in my opinion, are highly overrate as food. True silk worms are no longer found in the wild. They are a byproduct of the silk industry. A huge byproduct. I’m not convinced they are eaten and popular because of taste but rather because they are available and there’s so many of them. We have silk worms because of silk not taste. They are sold by street vendors in most of Asia. If I remember correctly they are also canned and exported.

Scorpions on a stick

Scorpions: Several scorpions are found in North America. To read about the locals click here. Like silkworms above, scorpions are found skewered and fried in Asian markets. They taste like crunchy crabs. Whether to eat the tail or not is a matter of personal taste. Cooking destroys the protein-based toxin.

Dried Stink Bugs

Stink Bugs, Jumiles: Just as some plants straddle the edible non-edible line so, too, do some bugs among them the stink bugs. High in B vitamins, their flavor varies greatly depending upon what they’ve eaten, the species, and how they are processed. Some of them are also nearly indestructible and survive cooking. Often times they are added to stews for flavor (some taste like cinnamon others mint. Others are eaten as the food itself, particularly in Mexico. In parts of Africa stink bugs are collected by hand. The live and dead stink bugs are then separated The lives ones are put in a bucket of warm water and stirred. This causes them to release their stink. The bugs are then dried and are ready for consumption. The separated dead bugs have their heads removed then their bodies squeezed and the juice wiped off. They are then boiled and sun dried.  Once dry they can be eaten as is, fried, or are cooked with a little water and salt.

Usually Deep Fried

Tarantulas: No doubt more than one hungry human has downed a tarantula or two, whether before the invention of cooking or not we cannot say. But tarantulas weren’t really on the menu until the 1970s when many Cambodians were near starvation following political upheaval. Survival skills turned a big hairy spider into a national craze that has not slackened in the decadess since. Usually well-cooked with salt, oil, sugar and garlic one starts with the legs which remind you of crab. The abdomen is soft and squishy, the flavor is nutty with a musty after taste. You’ll either like it or you won’t.

A taste for termites

Termites: I read once that termites are the perfect food for humans. They have all the essential amino acids we need. That’s certainly good news. Too bad flavor was left out of that equasion. Termites don’t taste bad per se. They taste like minty wood, or at least the ones that live in the jungle do. Maybe the ones in desert mounds taste like minty sand.  Could be worse, like tarantula tummies. In some places they are so well liked termites are eaten raw straight out of the mound with a straw. I wonder if they slurp. Another way to collect termites is to put a bowl of water under a light source at night. The termites fall into the bowl. Usually they are roasted, the wings are removed, a little salt is added, and bon appetit.

Walking Stick

Walking stick: Like Praying Mantis Walking Sticks fall betwewen the entomological cracks regarding who they are related to. More diverse than Praying Mantises they can be an inch long or 18 inches. A popular edible in  Asia and New Guinea, they taste, as one might expect, leafy. Some prefer only particular a foliage so feeding them alternative diets for a couple of weeks to moderate flavors might be called for. In one species the leg can be used for fish hooks.

Wasp: Japanese Emperor Hirohito like boiled wasps with rice. Surprisingly I learned that when I lived in Japan decades ago when he was still Emperor. Wasps, like bees, are eaten as larva and adults, cooked which takes a lot of the sting out of the stinger. The larval form is preferred over the adult. Their flavor is butter and earth. In Mexico entire paper wasp nests are collected, cooked, nest and all and made into a sauce. In other areas the nest is collected and put next to the fire to roast the lavae inside. Wasps are generally put into two categories, social and solitary. Solitary wasps tend to build nesting burrows or small mud nests. They’re not on the menu too often. Social wasps tend to build paper nest they use for one season. The sting of the social wasp is usually worse than that of the solitary wasp because it uses its stinger for defense. Solitary wasps use their stinger to paralyze prey. That is why the sting of the social wasp hurts more. Also they usually don’t loose their stinger upon stinging so they can sting multiple times. Wasps are important agriculturally because they consume most agricultural insect pests. And not all wasps have wings. The “velvet ant” Dasymutilla occidentalis, is a wingless female was that is so flexible that while being held by the front end she can sting with the back end.

Giant Water Bug

Water Bugs might be even more off putting than tarantulas. They’re not small and you might have seen one in a movie or a nightmare once. Also called Toebiter because they do the giant water bug is popular in Thai cuisine. It is eaten whole, steamed or fried, and is the unseen special ingredient in several sauces.  Raw they smell like green apples which doesn’t mean much when they have a hold of your toe… or the like. Steamed, they are aromatic like a banana with the flesh of a white fish. I see then now and then in Florida.

Farm-raised Wax Worms

Waxworm: Waxworms have got quite a reputation in the west as one of those innoffensive offensive edibles. They are the larvae of the wax moth. Fed on a diet of bran and honey they are roasted or sauteed tasting like a cross between a pine nut and an enoki mushroom, very fatty. With those flavors, as you might expect, they go good with butter… then again nearly everything goes good with real butter. In the wild waxworms live off bee larvae.

Wichetty Grubs, raw or roasted

Wichetty Grub: Without Ray Mears perhaps most folks outside of Australia would have never heard of the Wichetty Grub. They are so large and nutritious that 10 a day provides all the calories and nutrition an adult male needs. Eaten by Aborigines, they are dug out of roots and eaten raw or cooked, often roasted in coals or over a fire. They have a strong egg yoke flavor, and like many grubs are surprisingly chewy. Ah… c’mon.. if a kid can eat one so can you...

River Insects

Zaza mushi: I ate a lot of strange things when I lived in Japan but never got around to Zaza-mushi. On some of the outer islands where old ways and local customs still hold sway you can eat things that are as myserious as haggis.  Zaza mushi is the larvae of aquatic caddis flies that live at the bottom of rivers. The name comes from “zaazaa” the sound the Japanese use to immitate flowing water, and “mushi” which means insects… River Insects. The Japanese just don’t hear things like we do. To them a cow says bow-wow and a cat niki-niki.