Preserving grasshoppers

[saysfaa]

We are getting pretty good at catching the grasshoppers. But we have only five chickens; they really shouldn't eat them as fast as we are catching them given how many as we are catching. I don't want to slow down catching them because they are decimating parts of the garden.

Has anyone tried preserving them for the chickens?

Netsearching is giving me endless pages of preserving (protecting) gardens from grasshoppers. Nothing on wanting them to be edible later.

I'd rather not put them in the freezer. That worked fairly well last year for japanese beetles but I'm putting more people food in the freezer this year.

I think drying them may work, at least for the small ones. I don't know if I need to flatten them first or anything. Evidently, the feet should be removed before people can safely eat them. Maybe it would be better to do that for chickens too?

I'd like another option, if anyone has ideas.

 

[igorsMistress]

I would dehydrate them. Don’t worry about the feet, chickens don’t pick them off the grasshoppers they catch in the yard. Store in a jar with an O2 absorber or back in the freezer in a zip lock freezer bag. Once dried they take much less space in a freezer.

 

[saysfaa]

I would dehydrate them. Don’t worry about the feet, chickens don’t pick them off the grasshoppers they catch in the yard. Store in a jar with an O2 absorber or back in the freezer in a zip lock freezer bag. Once dried they take much less space in a freezer.

So, just kill them and spread them in the sun? Whole?

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

I'd dry them in a dehydrator on a low setting. If you've got low environmental humidity you might be able to get them dry in the sun alone, especially if you're going to store them in the freezer after they're dried. Also could try drying them in the oven, if it goes low enough or if you have a warmer section.

 

[igorsMistress]

So, just kill them and spread them in the sun? Whole?

Yeah. Put them on a screen or something for airflow and put that in a vehicle on the dashboard. Or between a couple screens in the sun. What’s your humidity like? Or use a dehydrator.

 

[saysfaa]

.. What’s your humidity like? Or use a dehydrator.

I didn't know. It isn't known for being dry around here. Or extremely humid.

According to the "past weather" page of localconditions,com it was between 65 and 69 most of the day yesterday. It dried out to 60 by noon on Friday, got as low as 40 by 7pm then started back up. It was 75 by midnight. Friday afternoon felt dry to me.

It looks like 70s and 80s were more common than 60s or less this month. It very rarely went below 50. This month is probably as dry as it gets, most years.

How low does the humidity need to be?

I have a dehydrator but zucchini is piled up waiting for the cherries to be done - even with freezing many of the cherries to dry later.

 

[saysfaa]

I finally found something -
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8068098/

Its topic is the nutritional differences of insects after drying the different ways but still gives some info on my topic.

It says to kill them by freezing or blanching them and to blanch them before drying them anyway if you kill them by freezing them. And says microwave drying, freeze drying, oven drying, vacuum drying and rack oven drying have been applied on yellow mealworms before (fewer studies have been done on grasshoppers).

For what it is worth, when silage is dried in the microwave, it pretty much makes that microwave become dedicated to drying silage. It isn't easy to get the smell out afterwards. Grasshoppers are a lot drier to start with but still something to consider.

Interesting that they list "oven drying" and "rack oven drying" separately.

 

[igorsMistress]

I didn't know. It isn't known for being dry around here. Or extremely humid.

According to the "past weather" page of localconditions,com it was between 65 and 69 most of the day yesterday. It dried out to 60 by noon on Friday, got as low as 40 by 7pm then started back up. It was 75 by midnight. Friday afternoon felt dry to me.

It looks like 70s and 80s were more common than 60s or less this month. It very rarely went below 50. This month is probably as dry as it gets, most years.

How low does the humidity need to be?

I have a dehydrator but zucchini is piled up waiting for the cherries to be done - even with freezing many of the cherries to dry later.

Freeze the extra grasshoppers and dehydrate later? That would be my choice. You can also put them in your car on the dashboard. It’ll be drier and hotter than outside. On screens as mentioned so there’s airflow all the way around.

 

[igorsMistress]

I finally found something -
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8068098/

Its topic is the nutritional differences of insects after drying the different ways but still gives some info on my topic.

It says to kill them by freezing or blanching them and to blanch them before drying them anyway if you kill them by freezing them. And says microwave drying, freeze drying, oven drying, vacuum drying and rack oven drying have been applied on yellow mealworms before (fewer studies have been done on grasshoppers).

For what it is worth, when silage is dried in the microwave, it pretty much makes that microwave become dedicated to drying silage. It isn't easy to get the smell out afterwards. Grasshoppers are a lot drier to start with but still something to consider.

Interesting that they list "oven drying" and "rack oven drying" separately.

I think a rack oven is a more commercial type of oven than the one you use at home. I line my dehydrator with some parchment before drying any bugs and haven’t had a smell issue later when using it.

 

[saysfaa]

That research article also says insects are low in methionine. That is the hardest amino acid to get from plants - so the main reason I wanted to preserve grasshoppers. I hoped they had amounts closer to "meat."

Disappointing but better to know it isn't so than to assume it is so when it isn't.