Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/07/23/making-delicious-sushi-from-in.html
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Can we just stop with the bug eating? If you love then good for you though. Maybe instead of picking the pepperoni from my pizza my veggie kids or grandkids will one day pick off those gross roaches.
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Best just get used to it. Some day soon that may be the only sustainable form of animal protein we have left.
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This is a great idea, especially for plants: if you go on a guided nature walk at a local reserve, you’d be surprised (okay, I was, anyway) how much of what you see is invasive and often worthless for the wildlife, and nothing can be done about it, because the work of yanking the crap out is too labor-intensive.
However, this should carry the same caveat that a video about mushroom-hunting would: if you don’t know 100% exactly what you’re looking at, and you mistake one plant for another, it may not end well, and sometimes ends really badly. A while ago I read about a couple who picked wild comfrey and ate it:
And they died, unfortunately, because they’d mistakenly picked foxglove, which has similar-looking leaves to comfrey:
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you all welcome to eat the snails in my backyard. Just don’t complain to me when you get ratlung worm.
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You’d best not disrespect soylent green.
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I will give you invasive weeds. Most plants, under the right circumstances, have the potential to be invasive. But I am not eating bugs until some sort of apocalypse or Holdomor type situation. There is no good reason to start eating them now.
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Oh sure there is – a lot of them taste good.
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I’d eat those snails in a heartbeat!
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Sushi made from sticks, snails and mini crab shells… it all depends on how much he’s charging.
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And this is, again, a message moment where my botanist heart misses a beat.
Digitalis instead of Symphytum? Holy fuck. What a shit way of poisoning yourself.
Foraging, dear everyone, is something you really, really, really should be sure about. This is not a hobby just to try out, especially not in any environment you are not used to. This includes mushrooms, of course.
And don’t be sure to about your ID skills.
I know what I am talking about:
I once misidentified Agaricus xanthodermus Genev s.l. for Agaricus arvensis Schaeff., shared the harvest it with a friend, went home and didn’t get to prepare the lot. Realised the error the next day and frantically tried to call the friend.
After a long while, they picked up the phone. They already had prepared and eaten the mushrooms.
Thankfully, they were part of the significant group who can eat A. xanthodermus without the adverse effects.
Advice: doubt yourself and your determination of edible species if you aren’t very familiar with them. If there is anything known which is similar, and potentially harmful, ask for a second opinion by someone who is thorough and experienced. If still in doubt, start over. If still in doubt, discard the stuff.
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This is a trueism if you generalise like this.
There is a significant branch of biology trying to determine which species have the potential to become invasive, and what parameters do have an influence on their potential invasiveness. The gaps in our knowledge are larger than the amount of synthesis, so far.
From the top of my head, just have a look at GlonAF, one of the projects trying to change that.
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And yet eating other arthropods such as crab, lobster, and shrimp are totally “normal” already in Western cuisine and the first two are valued so highly that restaurants often don’t even bother listing the price but go with “market price” and know people will pay whatever they ask for them.
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Yep, those invasive sea snails/periwinkles/Littorina littorea have been eaten for very long around here* and they’re quite good, if fiddly to get out of the tough shell. As of this writing, the kilo is sold around 12€ to food pros.
*Granted, “around here” is France, and they’re snails.
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This was exactly my thought while watching this video. Sure, he’s an accomplished chef-- but do I now have to start worrying whether my chef is also accredited in botany and biology? It’s bad enough that many sushi-restaurant fish have detectable levels of mercury and/or aren’t the fish they’re purported to be. Now I have to make sure they didn’t mistakenly pick a wild green that causes nausea, hallucinations, and liver damage.
Miya’s is a fantastic restaurant if you ever get a chance to go. Bun even forages his own pine needles for the white pine needle saki, which is really, really good.
We did make the mistake of going there the night after he gave a lecture/cooking demonstration at the Peabody museum, and were were offered samples of some of these “bug dishes”… fortunately, we were able to play our vegetarian card.
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Wild food is real food for regular people, for sure! There is so much out there to eat, just waiting to be noticed and appreciated. I like eating weeds and other invasive species because I can harvest plenty to eat now and stock up for later, too.
All it takes is to learn one species at a time - and most are very easy to identify once you know how. After a few years, the whole outdoors can be your personal grocery store. I forage and eat a lot of wild food over at https://www.youtube.com/c/HaphazardHomestead
There’s more to know about wild plants and mushrooms than any one person can learn in a lifetime, so I appreciate folks that share their experiences, too! Happy foraging! 
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I try to keep up with reports of poisonings from wild plants and mushrooms. I see so many problems caused by mistaken identity in the garden, more than from foraging. Even more common than the comfrey/foxglove mixups are cases where folks have confused Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) with parsley, fennel, anise, carrot tops, and even kale. Having non-gardening friends and family help with garden harvests has led to sad situations.
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