https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entomophagy
This year I'm studying the possibility of farming mealworms to expend less buying chicken that's already the cheapest source of protein I can find. As promised in a thread last year I'll be reporting my progress.
Finally finished the edible insects book. You can download it here:
>http://www.fao.org/forestry/edibleinsects/84629/en/
Very interesting reading. The book shows how eating insects is pretty normal outside the western world.
Now using the design from tinyfarms:
>https://github.com/TinyFarms/OpenBugFarm/wiki
I'm making the calculations to find initial costs (even PVC is expensive for me at the moment).
All the calculations should be done by friday 29.
I learned from my last DIY project that planning is fundamental otherwise you end expending 5 times more than expected. I should have ordered the mealworms after the calculations but I want to taste it at least once in my life. Sadly they will be delivered only on 15 february.
>>7301499
Is it cheaper than growing nutritional yeast?
Up front costs might be higher for nutritional yeast, but I'm sure it makes up for it on volume over time.
>>7301499
is animal flesh protein a must for you?
>>7301499
Couldn't you buy unwanted cuts?
>eating insects is pretty normal outside the western world.
so is famine, infant death and communism
So far all the attempts and bringing bugs as food to the west have been awful. They are either expensive (which pretty much makes them useless) and/or taste horrible, usually both. I've eaten bugs in Thailand and they weren't bad, the only problem I had was with crickets, they taste good but their legs get stuck in your teeth.
>>7301499
Chinese here,
Since we eat bugs, just sharing some thoughts.
For eating insects to take off, we need to be focusing on serving juicy insects. The kinds such as silk worm cocoons. China always have a sell on silk worm cocoons in late summer. That's when the worm metamorphisize. The silk industry extract the silk and sells the cocoon as food.
It is EXTREMELY juicy. Usually cooked by stir fry some ginger and green onion with the cocoons, no other seasoning except a bit salt.
The cocoon tastes like cream peanut butter mix and has the texture of a thick stew. It is all liquid inside the cocoon's outer carapace.
Things like spiders and crickets has too horrid of a texture to attract novel bug eaters and often is a reason why people dont like them. The carapace being too tough.
Strongly sugggest people go to China markets find some silk cocoons and try them at home. They taste great, just think of them as prawns, they are in the same biological family anyways.
>>7301499
>>7301950
I see frozen silk worm cocoons at my towns china-mart.
They look like giant maggots/grubs, I don't think they would fly anymore than crickets here.
I had some once and it was meh. I'm sure fresh would be better but just seemed flavourless mush.
>>7301973
You can deep fry them. If you batter them up. THey look like breaded jalepenos.
Once people have a taste, they will start to accept it. Also, cocoons can easily be processed. You can squeeze them empty and discard the carapace. You then cook the content. They can be treated like pureed shrimp or crab and incorporated into meat balls, crab cakes, etc etc.
They taste so fucking good... so gooood...
Bugs are 2 huge obstacles to over come
>they seems gross
>they seem like poor people food
I had trouble convincing my family to eat lentils since they associated with poor people food
>>7302152
They sound like dicks 2bh. Lentils are perfectly fine
>>7302159
it was just a food stuff the never had sevred, I had a Hispanic GF for a bit and got hooked on them since it was filling and cheap.
First time she made me lentils and rice I was very hesitant myself about them since I only heard of them as a poor countries staple when rice is too expensive.
>>7301915
419.5 preach it anon
>>7301499
I've raised meal worms. I think they stink.
>>7301943
Ever tried Mexican chapulínes? Those tiny grasshoppers are real tasty fried and seasoned.
>>7301950
When you say juicy I picture green bug guts. I'd rather eat dried crickets
>>7302259
For silk worm cocoon. It's cream white, almost exactly like clam chowder color and in texture as well.
So goooood
