It's that time of the year again...school has officially started in the Lowcountry! We are thrilled about the upcoming health fairs and bug fests around Charleston. There is nothing like trying to get a bunch of creative, fresh, spunky minds to eat a cricket cookie let alone a whole cricket! Since we started this venture to introduce crickets as an alternative source of protein, our favorite part has always been educating the youth, whether at the markets, with nieces and nephews, or at elementary and middle schools. If there are any teachers or educators who are interested in learning more about our company and entomophagy we would love to chat! [email protected]
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At the downtown farmers market in Charleston, a nice lady stumbled upon our booth and read all of the material that we had up educating people on entomophagy and how we incorporate crickets into our product. She then proceeded to sample a couple of chocolate "chirp" cookies that we had out and then gave us an "oh crap" look! It was in that moment that we realized that she had no idea what she was eating. It happens often, especially when we have out our chocolate "chirp" cookies to sample. Who wouldn't go for it, they look and taste relatively the same! However, this particular lady pieced everything together at the last moment and told us that she was a 50 year old vegan.
Since she read all of the material, and saw that the average person eats about 1 lb of insects per year, mostly mixed into other foods she wasn't as taken back at the idea that she just ate a living thing. She then put a big smile on her face and said, "well you know what, that was probably the best protein that I have had in a while." Then she took another sample and walked away. We didn't quite know what to make of it, we always have a lot of material out and specifically say "cricket cookies" when people sample them, in order to avoid any shellfish allergies and or personal preference. It got us thinking, do people who are deep into their commitment to be vegetarian or vegan consider eating insects as an alternative source of protein? The answer really depends on your reasons for being vegetarian, whether it is the sustainability aspect or the humane aspect then crickets check off your list for edible foods! Insects are the worlds most sustainable source of animal protein. They also, naturally live in dense quarters so there is no stress caused to the insect and they are put into a sleep like state before they are cleaned and roasted called diapause. So the question is, if you are vegan or vegetarian would you consider eating insects as a source of protein? Cultural Acceptance plays a large roll in eating insects! Jiminy Co. is invited to talk at Stiles Point Elementary about Entomophagy. We are so excited to talk with the kids about eating bugs! It starts with the youth and if we can make it a cultural norm for them, then hopefully they will all be entomophagists in their future. We stumbled upon this video a while back and thought it to be a great resource for educating children and adults alike. It touches on the benefits, history, relation to environment and entomophagy in other countries! Check it out! A few years ago my sisters and I found ourselves pondering about life. Alex, worked at her job for over 8 years, moved to Colorado for a new experience only to find herself back in Charleston working at the same job again. Gabby, graduated college, moved back to her home town in hopes to land a job in the public health sector only to find herself working the same job as Alex, now going on 4 years. Vicky on the other hand was a little more free spirited and jumped around jobs finding the right fit, only to find herself broke.
As we all sat there on the beach with friends and the pups, we got to thinking about what we wanted in life, what made us happy and what we were passionate about. One word came to mind...travel. We reflected upon our travels, what we saw, who we met, what we ate, and that was when we really got to thinking about the differences between cultures. One main difference is diet. Traveling almost desensitized us from what exactly we were eating, we were happy to eat anything if it was new, tasty, and decent smelling! We didn't really understand the value of all of the insects, vegetables, and odd foods we were eating until we did our research and compared it to our culture. Before you knew it we were ordering live crickets by the thousands to our house and googling how to build an insect farm and raise insects. We built our quaint little insect farm in my guest bedroom and are now about to go off to a new venture selling edible insects for human consumption to our peers and community in the form of baked goods and flour. We have no idea what to expect from it, all we do know is that we have never been this excited to put so much effort into a something without even knowing the outcome! Life really never has a specific plan for you; one day you could be working a job, two jobs, no job, the next you feel the urge to order crickets to your house to eat them. What we do know is nothing can take away the experiences we've shared during this venture; all of the conversations it has opened up, people we've met, jokes, laughs, excuses to travel some more for "research," and knowing that we are taking a step forward in sustaining our future and promoting something for a good cause. Nothing can beat all of that! Thoughts for the end of the week:
We have had another little bump this week in our cricket endeavor. It is a hard process getting crickets on the market and we have met many challenges. We realize it will be a while before we can change the anti-bug eating concepts over here in the states but we will get there little by little. We are opening the eyes of law makers to now make changes to FDA regulations and to even give thought about how they are going to be regulating the soon-to-be bug consuming population! Jiminy Co. is one of the many companies in the US making a step to a more sustainable environment one cricket at a time. Here is a site that gives 10 more reasons to look at how to help our planet through food: http://www.simplebites.net/10-tips-for-sustainable-eating/ This is a little video we put together during our stay in Panama. We made cricket veggie empanadas and gave it to everyone in the house and compiled some interesting interviews! Our Abuelita (grandma) is the very last interview, she is so special to us and getting her approval meant the world to us! We always knew she had an exceptional palate for good food! Empanada recipe credit has to go to our amazing Damaris, who is pretty much our second mother! She is a jack of all trades and there is nothing that she cannot do! She was more than excited to cook with the flour and she made some amazing dishes that even the hardest critic in the house could not deny. She so generously gave us her recipe to share with you! We hope you enjoy. EMPANADAS 2 cups of Jiminy Co. flour 2 sticks of butter or margarine (room temperature) 2 egg yolks 1 tsp of salt 1 tsp of baking powder 4 tbsp of cold water 1. Add flour and dry ingredients together 2. Mix in eggs and water 3. Mix together and add more flour as needed and knead the dough until it gets soft 4. Put down loose flour on a flat surface and roll the dough-thin 5. Cut it into circles, however big or small you want it 6. Pick up a circle and place stuffing in the middle and fold...repeat until dough is gone 7. Egg wash before baking at 350 degrees for 15 minutes and TA DA baked empanadas Hello,
Hope everyone's new year has been going well! We here at Jiminy Co. are getting ready for the Charleston farmer's markets coming up within the next few months! In doing so, we are keeping busy creating new recipes and re-creating the ones from our last travels. We are trying to make some savory treats and some sweet in order to keep everyone intrigued and happy with our product. Our goal for this year 2016 is to turn Charleston onto the idea of edible insects. There has already been a major boom in awareness for the benefits of eating insects happening around the world. The idea has taken a huge leap just in the past year! While more than 2 billion people worldwide eat them daily, we still struggle in breaking through the misconception in others minds. Europe and the US were the biggest doubters when it came to the idea of edible insects. Last year, Europe agreed to allow insects as being a source of food. The US, as always, is still a little behind but with all of the companies starting out from NY to California, this idea is starting to spread! There are so many recipes now using these very sustainable, earth-friendly edible creatures that are just delicious. (You can find them online!) If you have any certain recipes in mind that you would like us to try out in our kitchen please comment to the blog or our Facebook page and we will! The next blog will be the pictures of the best ones we came out with along with the recipe. Have a great week everyone! Hoppy eating! (Below is a picture of the other edible insect companies that are getting big in the United States) It's New Years Eve and in the Olmos household that means finalizing future trips. Our Aunt Denise and Uncle Don surprised us with a trip to The Pearl Islands; an archipelago off the coast of Panama City. Traveling has always been encouraged in our family and we are fortunate enough to be in a place where it is only a short plane ride away to a completely different terrain and beauty. It hasn't always been easy for us to travel. Often we find ourselves asleep in bus stations or hostels with 15 people to 1 room. However, those are the trips that make for the best memories and dinner table stories!
As some of you may already know from reading our About Me page, us three sisters; Alex, Gabby and VIcky have a sweet spot for Panama. Most of our family lives there and our mother is from there. We have been traveling to Panama since we were little girls. We spent every summer here until our quinceneras and now we come in December for Christmas and for special events such as weddings, birthdays, showers...any excuse really! This year is the first year that we have brought Jiminy Co. products to cook with using our Abuelita and TIa's recipes! We have been adding cricket goodness to almost everything. It pairs well with a lot of the flavors that Panama has to offer and if you've traveled to Central America then you know FLOUR is a major staple here! We've made empanadas, hojaldres, tortillas and churros as well as flan, delicious fruit shakes, arroz con pollo and much more. It has been great to experiment with crickets in Panama with traditional recipes from the family. We've analyzed the taste profile, the outcome, and have gotten a lot feedback! We have a few interviews from some family members and friends that we will show later in our blog!
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