‘Bugs’ Category

Bees in a field

April 4th, 2010
Board of bees being taken out from inside the hive

Buzzing bees

My first and most entertaining encounter with bees took place last week. We were kitted out in our space suits ready to check on Deborah’s hives at The Quadrangle in Kent. The suits were made of white cotton twill – hardly the thickest of fabrics but the white was supposed to keep the bees calmer (more…)

On Why We Should Eat Insects

March 17th, 2009
Pocket sized

Pocket sized

I’ve just finished reading a wonderful book called ‘Why Not Eat Insects?’ by Vincent M. Holt 1885. The first pages mention some bugs that i’d rather not think about. The ones that have some sort of textural onomatopoeia going on where the name of the bug is imitating the off putting tactile nature of it. Like, Slug or Cockroach.

The term for eating insect is Entomophagy. He put it forward as an essay of how Victorians could eat well on bugs instead of wasting them,

‘Not only would their children be rewarded by the farmers for hand picking the destructive insects, but they would be doubly rewarded by partaking of toothsome and nourishing insect dishes at home’
(more…)