And be sure to check our other upcoming screenings, here.

Or, of course, you could always join our facebook page where you can get updates on upcoming screenings.

And don’t forget to check out our current adventures, here.

I’ll still be posting here if there is something pressing or newsworthy, but most of my energy will be directed elsewhere until we get back at the end of August.

In her film, Jessica explores the Japanese’s unusual passion for insects, but another way of looking at it may be asking why most other cultures would rather squash first, ask questions later.

Melanoplus femurrubrum, a North American migratory grasshopper. Creative Commons Gilles Gonthier

Perhaps it has something to do with the traumatizing treatment insects have occasionally dealt us. Biting flies, bees and wasps, mosquitoes, lice, bedbugs, and even botflies come to mind, but for shear wrath-of-God power, the migratory locust has them all beat. The grasshoppers in question belong to the notorious genus Melanoplus, and are called locusts* in their swarming phase. Wherever they have called (and they have called on all continents except Antarctica), they have visited disasters of literally biblical proportions, having no doubt inspired the author of Exodus.

Here in North America, grasshoppers and their cousins have periodically swarmed across the West since time out of mind, prompted in their boom-and-bust reproductive rhythms by cues of climate, precipitation and a certain amount of je ne sais quoi. From the crop-leveling locusts immortalized by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Larry McMurtry to the legendary Mormon Crickets — actually a species of katydid — that almost did in the early settlers of Utah, North American insects have periodically and regularly arisen to take back what was theirs from a mostly helpless human population. According to the Kansas Historical Society, roving grasshopper swarms blotted out the sun, fell like rain, and, in addition to stripping the soil of every green thing, were not above consuming paper, tree bark, wooden tool handles, the wool off live sheep, and the clothing off live people. Trains could sometimes not get traction because the rails were slicked with grasshoppers.
Try imagining dealing with that for a week. Now try imagining that for hundreds of miles in all directions.

In 1874, a mammoth swarm 198,000 square miles (513,000 km²) big — twice the size of Colorado – mobbed the Great Plains. The trillions of insects were the legendary Rocky Mountain Locust, the party responsible for the paper pilfering and sheep sheering detailed above. People tried raking them into piles and burning them, but they were powerless to stop the insects in the face of such overwhelming numbers. Truly, Grasshopper Queen Conquered Kansas.

But here’s the twist: the Rocky Mountain Locust is extinct – and it was extinct less than thirty years later. This puzzled entomologists for a long time, who wondered if the insects somehow survived in their solitary form (the locust form is only induced on crowding). Strangely enough, no one had saved many samples because no one could conceive such an apparently successful pest could go extinct. Fortunately (and weirdly) enough, a few of the trillions got blown off course into Grasshopper Glacier in Montana, where they were cryogenically preserved for posterity. Scientists who have chiseled some out have confirmed that the many still-pesky species alive in North America today are not members of Melanoplus spretus, which, for good (probably) or ill (maybe) and short of some evil-villain-style cloned resurrection, is gone from the face of the Earth forever.
Scientists now hypothesize that the grasshoppers became vulnerable when, during a natural quiescent stage in the latter part of the 19th century, they laid their eggs in sandy stream banks, where farmers plowing fields (ironically) unearthed and destroyed their egg cases. American agriculture accidentally annihilated its own scourge. The last Rocky Mountain locust was seen in Canada in 1902, perhaps not coincidentally, the same year the first Western – The Virginian – was published in America, immortalizing an Old West that was already dying.

So where does that leave us? Still swarmed with grasshoppers of less-than-biblical but still-staggering proportions, still perhaps traumatized by cultural memories of similar experiences, but now the only inhabited continent devoid of a dominant massive migratory locust species. We stripped it bare.
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* The etymology of the oft reused and abused “locust” is enough to make a taxonomist’s head explode, since it can also refer to cicadas, North American leguminous (and sometimes very thorny!) trees, and the fruit of the Mediterranean carob tree.

And a quick update on Beetle Queen.  Lots of good press and a bunch of new bookings!  Please check our screenings page for more information on where Beetle Queen is playing. Or become a fan on facebook to get regular updates.

And if you are in Japan today, be sure to buy an Asahi Shimbun for the article and interview with yours truly!

Ingredients
Vegetable or canola oil (for frying)

Dough:
2 parts corn masa (corn flour)
1 part mealworm flour (see “Insect Flour” instructions)
Water (add as needed)

Filling:
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 red onion, diced
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)
1/2 tsp cumin
2 skinned, seeded, and chopped medium tomatoes
1/4 cup dried currants
1 cup crickets (see “Purchasing and Preparing Insects” instructions )
1 splash dry white wine

Cilantro Yogurt Sauce:
1 cup whole yogurt
1/2 lemon juice, squeezed
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
1. Filling: Place a large frying pan over the stove with 1 tbsp olive oil and set temperature to a medium heat. Add onions into pan and sauté onion until translucent. Add cumin, cayenne, and crickets and let cook for 1 minute. Splash of white wine and let that cook off for 1 minute. Add tomatoes and currants and let cook down with lid on, reduce heat to simmer. When tomatoes have broken down, taste for salt and pepper. Turn off heat and set aside.

2. Preheat a saute pan with about 1/2 in covering bottom of pan for frying empanadas.

3. Dough: Dough: Mix 2 parts corn masa flour with 1 part toasted meal worm flour. Use just enough water to keep the dough together, but not so much it becomes sticky. If the dough becomes sticky, it will not come off the tortilla press. You can let the dough air dry until the correct texture is back, or add a bit more flour until you have the right consistency.

4. Assemblage: Take dough mixture and roll into little balls about ¾ inch diameter. Place ball into a tortilla press, and press down to flatten ball into a circle. Put a small amount filling in the middle of the flattened dough circle (approximately 1/2 tablespoon or enough so that the circle can fold and seal easily). Then fold circle over in half and pinch edges to seal. Fry empanadas a couple minutes on each side until crispy.

Cilantro Yogurt Sauce: Sauce can be made a day in advance so flavors have time to mingle. Just mix all ingredients together for that. Combine all sauce ingredients into small bowl and stir well. Serve with spicy empanadas!

Purchasing and Preparing Insects
Feeding Time: 24 hrs
Fasting Time: 24 hrs
Total Time: 48 hrs

Instructions for purchasing and preparing different insects are pretty similar. For our Cricket Mealworm Empanada recipe, we will use mealworms as our example, which can also be applied to preparing the crickets.

Ingredients
Mealworms, live

Instructions
1. Buy approximately 1,000 mealworms. Most local pet stores sell live mealworms in bran with 100 per container for about $7 or so, depending on the store. To purchase larger quantities, you can ask your local pet store to order you some or you can purchase them directly from the insect farm distributor online, such as www.rainbowmealworms.com or www.flukerfarms.com. Mealworms are sold by size: Mini (¼ inch), small (½ inch) to medium (¾ inch) to large (1 inch). Cricket Tip: I like to buy the 5-week-old nymph crickets over the 6-week-old adult ones because they make less noise and don’t have hard ovipositors and exoskeletons.

2. Empty your mealworms into a clean, empty container or basic plastic storage bin. Make sure the container has nothing but mealworms in them. To help separate mealworms from any attached food, waste material, or other debris, try placing them in a sifter over a trash can or another container, and gently tap. Remove any dead insects or miscellaneous materials.

Note: The size of the plastic tub container will be determined by how many mealworms you are planning on raising. For example, if you are planning on raising 100 mealworms, a 1-quart-sized container would be more than enough space (or you can use the container they usually the come in). If you plan on raising 1,000 mealworms, you may want to use at least a 6-quart container. If the mealworms in the tub are over ½ inch in accumulative height, you may want to use a larger container. Cricket Tip: Use a taller bin to prevent crickets from hopping out.

3. Feed mealworms small slices of fresh fruits or vegetables. Allow them to feed for 24 hours. This is to ensure that they are healthy and you know what they have been eating. Feed mealworms apples, potatoes, or carrots. Carrots tend to work well because they do not mold as fast as apples or potatoes.

4. After feeding the mealworms for 24 hours, allow them to fast for another 24 hours to ensure their system has been cleaned out.

5. Place mealworms in refrigerator for about 30-60 minutes to slow down their mobilization. When mealworms appear to have slowed down, place mealworms in a strainer, rinse under cold water, and then dab dry with a towel to clean. If they become active again and are unmanageable, the mealworms can be returned back to the refrigerator at any time.

6. The is the most humane way to kill insects is to place them in the freezer. Place the mealworms into a ziplock bag or sealable container, and place the bag into the freezer for at least 30 minutes or until they have stopped moving. Just like any other meat, insects can also be stored in the freezer until they are ready to be used, but the sooner it’s used the fresher and tastier. When you are ready to cook your insects, take them out of the freezer.

Insect Flour
Prep Time: 30 minutes / Cook Time: 60-180 minutes / Total Time: 60 minutes

Insect flour is dried insects that is ground to a power-like consistency. It can be made with any insect and can be used in virtually any recipe as a flavorful ingredient or nutritional supplement. Mealworms have a nuttty taste which mixes well for many baked good recipes. You can make any kind of insect flour next time, try crickets or waxworms!

Ingredients
Mealworms, dead and cleaned

Instructions
1. Before making mealworm flour, please read “Purchasing and Preparing Insects.”

2. After insects have been harvested and cleaned, spread insects out on a foil-lined baking sheet.

3. Baking method: Set oven 200 degrees Farenheit and dry insects for approximately 1-3 hours (the larger the quantity, the longer the baking). Stove-top method: Turn stovetop on to a low to medium heat (begin with a lower temperature and work to a medium temperature to prevent burning. For both methods, periodically stir mealworms around to ensure even drying. Keep an eye on the insects to make sure they do not burn.

4. To test if the insects are ready, take a kitchen utensil and crush one of the insects. When the insects are fairly brittle and crush easily, they are done drying.

5. Take dried insects and grind until fine or the consistency of wheat germ. Try using a mortar and pestle, a food processor, or coffee grinder. Set aside or place in the refrigerator until ready to cook with.

I have moved beyond the sandbox and learned about different cultural practices through various media and while traveling around the world. I learned that other cultures eat insects, but was curious as to why ours doesn’t, which led me to begin thinking about how we select, accept, and adopt cultural identities. I began to reflect how I identify past and current self. What changed? How did my moving from the Central Valley suburbs of Fresno, to the Northern Californian college town of Davis, to the metropolitan coastal city of San Francisco influence me? How do we identify ourselves with familiar and unfamiliar people and cultures? We all exist in the same system, but there are drastic disconnects between peoples, much like our relationship with insects. We may be easily dismissive with things we are not familiar with because the unfamiliar challenges our identities, and thus causing identity anxieties.

These thoughts rolled around my head for quite some time. In my first semester of graduate school, I was asked to come up with a personal sustainability project. Of course, I thought of bugs. It turns out that farmed edible insects are extremely efficient—they have a extremely short gestation rate, and take less resources to produce than traditional livestock. Insects compete in nutritional value with other food sources, plus they can be eaten whole. I saw this as a great opportunity to finally turn these thoughts into actions. I learned a new word—enthomophagy, the consumption of insects. I initially focused on the nutritional and environmental benefits of this diet, but I became more and more interested in the practice from a cultural perspective.

For my thesis I explored the ways in which branding can be used as a tool to help people learn to think differently about insects as food. I feel that, in order for entomophagy to take off, it needs to have an active and supportive grassroots following. A culture of entomophagy needs to be formed. All these years later, I still love insects—my passion for them has brought me here, and keeps me excited about all the ways in which we can benefit from eachother. The only thing that has changed in my relationship with insects is that now I eat them. My ability to feel empathy with these creatures that sit on the bottom of the food chain and at the same time to eat them, has allowed me to take on the role of the mediator between insects and a larger audience.

I hope to continue working on the complex challenges in promoting entomophagy, as well as collaborating more with others to understand it—but more importantly in the larger scope, I hope by introducing this practice to people, we can all learn more about ourselves and raise larger questions. I’d like to hear your stories and what all you out there think. Thanks for reading!

So who am I anyways? I’ve been advocating entomophagy, or the consumption of insects, in the San Francisco Bay Area under the name MiniLivestock for the last two years. You can see some of my efforts at minilivestock.org. I also a recent graduate student of the Design MFA program at the California College of the Arts as of last week, and *cough* now available for freelance work.

I am looking forward to sharing some of my insect-eating experiences and knowledge on the Beetle Queen blog. We’d love to hear your experiences too, so please feel free to comment on the blog! Thanks and hope to talk to you all very soon!

And because of the success at Film Forum, we will be extending our run in New York City with a run at IFC! We will open at the IFC Center on Friday with showtimes Friday through Thursday: 10:55am, 12:40pm, 4:25, 8:25, 10:25pm, plus late shows Friday and Saturday at 12:20am.

If you couldn’t make it out for any of the Film Forum screenings, you have no excuse now!

The showtimes are:
1:00, 2:50, 4:40, 6:30, 8:20, 10:10 daily.
You can buy advance tickets here.

I’ll also be attending a few of the shows. Opening night, 6:30 and 8:20; and Friday night, 6:30 and 8:20, I’ll be answering questions following the movie. And then on Sunday I’ll be at the 4:40 feature with Hugh Raffles, author of the new book Insectopedia.

But even if you can’t make it to any of the “In Person” events, I hope you’ll come to one of the other screenings!

A poster at Other Music in New York