I had to take a break from the Apple tech guy after 3 1/2 hours of tedious BS trying to hunt down a number of glitches caused by an OS 10.8.3 up grade. These appeared as a result of my being convinced this upgrade would solve the problems. Wrong -- now my laptop is like a piece of bacon in a campfire. It looks great and the sizzle's still there but I can't get it from where it is to where I want it to be without help. Be it a pointy stick or a geek who knows his stuff -- at this point I have neither.

So I wiped the small drop of blood running from my ear down to the point where it met the one running from the exploding capillaries in my sinuses and decided it was time to hang up the phone and take a break. I decided to water my figs. Apple's engineers probably needed a break from me as well. They were perplexed and as frustrated as I was -- almost. It wasn't their data and records that seem to have vanished into the ether.

As soon as I walked out the back door I noticed large insects chris-crossing my lawn.
Cicadas! There were only half a dozen on my trees -- hardly enough for a proper meal so I let them be. 

This weekend will be different, however, and dozens will find their way into the WOK provided I can figure out where my cleaning ladies hid it. Hot sesame oil, garlic, anise and  celery will round out the flavor. I still have my black wild rice (actually grass seed) I've been saving for this meal and my mood has gone from dark and stressed out to almost down right glee.

Cicadas aren't as addictive as ripe figs but they sure are a rare treat. I'm sure within the week I'll feel like yelling out the window for them to shut up, but until then bon appetite.

mgginva,
My experience with the Apple support is VERY negative, they treat you as a complete dumb a** assuming your education is 2nd grade at most. Any deeper questions I had just were hitting the wall.
And I was talking to the live people at an Apple store, the infamous Genius Bar. For now, I treat the Apple OS as a broken Linux. It works for what it was designed for and it's good enough. 
I think in 3 1/2 hours you could find a solution on the internet just Googling for it.

I'll be looking forward to pictures of that dish!

If you get to a senior tech on the phone you will eventually get things either fixed or replaced. I think the lower level folks have lost a step but Apple still supports it's stuff really well. I've never talked to a "Genius" at one of their stores. I think the new OS is nothing great but I'm on my 28th Apple and I've had pretty good experiences up until the last few years. But they've replaced my last 2 laptops for free and I'd still rather have an Apple then anything else. But to be really honest I'd be happy living down at the end of a very long road with no phone, no internet and no cell coverage. If someone wants to talk to me they can right a letter. Yep -- a tad burned out these days.
As far as finding the problem on google -- not this time. My laptop is doing some really really odd stuff. I'm waiting for their upper level engineers now as I'm climbing up the "tech ladder".

Andy,
I've posted this before - this is from 17 years ago.

It is quite fun watching the ducks chase them across the yard, they make a good crunch when caught.  

I can't believe that you were serious about eating those.   If you want any earwigs, pill bugs, cockroaches, or stink bugs, I will send you some as a side dish.  

I'll add the fire ants for an appetizer!

Here you go:
http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/chef-puts-cicadas-menu-yes-8217-bug-soup-183700433.html

with some cicada recipes!

Folks,
Thanks for the offers but not all insects are good eating. 

Because cicadas emerge only to mate and only sip a bit of sap - they don't eat anything - they are very clean. 

As far as other decent bug food --meal worms, crickets, grasshoppers (not my favorite), scorpions (these are very good) and some grubs are all ok, but the cicadas - especially if you get them right after they shed their skin (and taste like really good fresh sweet corn) - are the best. 

The US is one of the few societies that doesn't eat bugs -- well except lobster, crab, shrimp, etc. which are just big ocean bugs.

Your children will eat bugs as they will end up being one of the few affordable sources of healthy proteins in the future. 

As we breed ourselves into a state where food will get to be more and more expensive the lowly insect will be one of the few sources of protein the non rich will be able to afford.

And as far as yukky to eat. I'd sure rather eat a bug then boiled okra. 

And if you truly knew what was in processed foods - like for example - processed human hair and duck feathers in breads and other baked goods (like hamburger buns - especially stuff from China - you'd be far more open to a good clean all natural cicada.

And if you eat red candy, eat tinted yogurt or drink red juices, etc. you are already probably eating crushed african beetle abdomens. And if the candy has a shiny coating it's probably shellac - another insect product.

Or how about that hamburger you had for lunch made out of ground beef from a thousand different cows that contains hormones and feces and multiple toxins including veterinary medicines, heavy metals, antibiotics and flesh eating bacteria - and that meat was washed in ammonia?

Or how about the cheese made with cloned, genetically modified rennet -- mucosa from a calf's 4th stomach?

Or the milk shake full of hormones out lawed just about everywhere but the US that'l give you prostate, breast or colon cancer? And - oh yea - it probably also has beaver anal gland secretions and urine in it as well.

And you all think an organic, free range, all natural insect like a cicada's gross? Not this fat white boy.

And just one last thing -- the cicadas are FREE.

So you prefer to eat a cicada......that lived it's entire life in the ground feeding on plant roots next to a sewer leach field or drenched in who knows what chemicals by homeowners treating their lawn or in the soil of a superfund site?   Point is you do not know where that bug came from or the conditions it grew up under.  You are taking just as big a risk as they guy eating the hamburger.   Even if you are collecting the bugs from your own yard you don't know what chemical a previous owner dumped on the ground or where the fill came from when the house was built.    I for one would have no trouble trying the cicada though......the repulsion some feel is just in their heads.  It would be the same feeling a hindu would have about us eating beef.   

Personally I let the chickens and ducks eat the bugs then I eat them:)  Or their eggs.  

W,
You draw an awful lot of conclusions.

The cicadas in that picture were collected on a friend''s farm. It is located in the national forest and is an organic asparagus farm. He is an entomologist at Va Tech and his wife is a soil scientist. We took great care to assure that our dinner was toxin free.

The soil on the 3 acres I live on was brought here by 600 dump trucks 13 years ago and I know exactly where it came from and it was pretty thoroughly  tested before I paid for it. In some areas of this property I added 16 feet of top soil -- all clean and all tested.

At my house the septic field does not leach toxins as I don't flush them down the toilet. Neither did the person who lived here before me or the one who lived here before that. The neighborhood I live in practices strict controls on any poisons. All things sprayed in the common areas -- the woods and along our roads are subject to approval by myself and any other resident that has a voice.

Before moving here I lived on an organic farm and before that I lived on another organic farm. 

There aren't any superfund sites near my home. I'm sure some of the cicadas I'm exposed to may have been on nearby properties where roundup or Sevin's been sprayed but I'm not sure how easily either of those substances enter into a subterranean insect feeding on tree roots.

I think you're very wrong in your opinion of what I'm exposing myself to when harvesting the cicadas I eat, but you're welcome to your opinion.

I'm off now to visit some friends who live 200 miles away and as their farm is quite remote and inside the national forest and organic as well, I think I'll be able to find safe bugs to eat. As far as eating the ones in my yard - I'm sure they are far cleaner then the cattle and sheep in the fields nearby.

Michael,

I drew no more conclusions about the food you are eating than you did about the food a nation full of people are eating.  

My point is you have no idea what chemicals are in the bugs you are consuming unless the bugs were tested.  You are making assumptions they are clean and chemical free while stating all other foods are poison    How could you possibly know what previous owners of your property did or did not put down the toilet?  If they ever ate or had a guest that ate food and used the facilities.well guess where those "toxins" are?    I'm sure a bit of soil from some of the trucks of fill might have been tested but not all the soil so you have no idea what is in the soil.   What if the grandparents of those organic rural asparagus farm cicada fed in a Monsanto GMO cornfield!!!  You are doomed, doomed.    

It is funny though how you can attack and look down your nose at those eating beef or other non organic foods but when it is pointed out you have no idea what is in the bugs you are eating you get a tad defensive..... but in any event don't take it too personally just having a conversation.

Mgginva: I was just joking.  Kudos to you for eating them and using organic methods.   

We don't have them yet but there's big front page article in today Bergen Record

"likely between May 18 and 24, when the soil reaches the magic temperature of 64 degrees"

http://www.northjersey.com/news/Cicada.html

W,
Once again you are drawing conclusions that aren't supported.

Did I say they were clean (see below) or that all other foods are not. Of all the foods in the world how many did I discuss?

I have spent a lot of energy including 5 years of college studying animal production, biology and poultry science.

W, again you just jump to conclusions. I know because this house was originally my mother's home - then my brother's.

Where would this Monsanto GMO field have been. You obviously have never lived in the country surrounded by educated people - a rare but wonderful side effect of the Va Tech experience is a lot of students stay around. Everyone knows everyone else's business. If you bother to check you can get detailed soils maps of Va and find out any place that's been disturbed.

We'd never allow Monsanto to move into the area.

Look as I don't feel like bouncing this back and forth all night so here are a few simple facts;
If the cicadas are exposed to toxins they won't even emerge as they are fairly fragile. Your super fund site cicada just does not exist.
Think about it. If the things are exposed to toxins - they will die. To emerge they need to be healthy - not exposed to poisons. 

On the other hand if you study our food in the US you'll find a terrible record of abuse and very unhealthy practices. A lot of what we do in the US is out lawed in Europe, for example.

I'm not even going to answer the tiny amount of dirt w/ toxins stuff as it's obvious you aren't being serious or have zero understanding of what a toxin or chemical load is and what it means.

And you obviously know nothing about Va's policy of testing dirt. They will, for example test -for free - 16 samples of my fig dirt any time I ask. For larger projects they will do much more and the soil scientist I hired is someone I trust to know his business.

Just exactly how far do you think cicadas travel?

And again you draw conclusions. I eat beef. I buy grass fed beef by the 1/4 every year. I was just pointing out a few facts that folks should have to read every day before they feed their kids ground beef from Safeway, etc.

I'm not taking it too personally I'm just frustrated as you seem to read into my post what you want to read - not what I said. We have words as they have specific meanings.
Ahhh----------
Hopefully I don't sound too harsh. It's been a bad day. Instead of a lovely day in pristine woods some jerk from New Jersey in a Lincoln Navigator ran me off rt 81 at 85mph right into the medium. I was really lucky as the car probably decelerated to 35 before I was pushed off the shoulder, but I love this car and have had it for a very long time (Jag XJR - 1996 with only 80k miles). Now it's barely made it home and probably isn't worth fixing according to the insurance Co. -- and replacing it will not be easy   ---arrgghh - sorry - I'm venting.
I hate car accidents and I'm grumpy as hell so forgive me if I'm not being nice - I don't mean to be.

Look if you are really serious about discussing toxins and cicadas and our food production - I'd be happy to chat with you on the phone --- this typing takes too much time. But if you just want to learn a bit about good food practices and healthy farming look up Polyface farm in Va. There's a ton to be learned. And these guys are the best.

Sorry evry one else -- I'll answer tomorrow. I'm going to eat a bunch of aspirin and have a big drink and go to bed. Whine whine whine

agh - I'm back
so

greenfig my Apple support issues may be mute as I had my lap top open on the passenger seat playing a book --A Confederacy of Dunces --- great book -- when I got run off the road and it hit the dash pretty damn hard. I can't get it to boot up. Having to use my company computer.
Just a bad day.

KK - if you need a recipe let me know. I'm going to try batter fried as soon as they arrive here. My safari was a failure. 
All those from the northern states please cover your ears.
GD yankees! Always driving through and causing trouble on their way to Disneyland.
Ok I feel better now.

Michael,

I was poking a bit of fun at you...you really were not supposed to take the ribbing that seriously or get so upset you had to write that diatribe.   The fact remains you have no idea what toxins are in the bugs.  If you have a link to a university study that states cicada larvae are killed by even a tiny amount of any and every toxin I would love to read it.  Larvae of many insects are actually very tough.....for example Black soldier fly larvae can survive many minutes at the bottom of a glass full of rubbing alcohol.  

Far as farming I know enough:)  Grew up on a farm, a working dairy.  Have had animals my entire life.  I still raise rabbits 8 does and 2 bucks, ducks 21 and chickens 18 and until recently quail.   

Tuesday I was at a commercial blueberry farm a friend owns and watched as the migrants were putting the certified organic blueberries in the clamshells.  Right outside the door of the packing shed was a 55 gallon barrel of glyphosphate they spray on the weeds and several drums of 93% sulfuric acid they add to the irrigation water to neutralize the bicarbonates in our water.  As I am sure you know neither of those items are allowed in certified organic production......the certified organic label is a joke, a trick to get people to pay twice the price.   

Sorry about your car.....your unsuccessful bug hunt and your computer.......

W,
Believe me I'm not upset - just disappointed in you to be honest. You really should try and stick with the facts. You exaggerate things to an absurd level to try and make your point rather then do your homework and stay within what is actually said. This thread was started by me pretty tongue in cheek. That you again draw another conclusion just does seem to be your MO.

I've read some of your posts and you seem to be a good guy.
I just think you are mentally lazy. Why didn't you post a link about your beetles and your claim about how tough they are?

Why don't YOU take a look online and read about cicadas and toxins?  I'd think as you're in a discussion about them that you'd actually try and learn something about them. 
You seem far more interested in trying to look intelligent then in learning about the subject being discussed.

I called Va Tech today and spoke with an entomologist just to make sure I was not bending the facts. I am very good about my fact checking -- something you need to improve. I've been online making sure I'm not misrepresenting the truth. I think discussions that may effect other's choices are important and should be accurate. 

It's sad your friends are so dishonest. Mine aren't. Perhaps that explains your need to manufacture exaggerated "facts'. Maybe there's a part of you that resents folks that practice more sensible farming methods because the ones you call friends are not exactly good examples - in fairness you only mentioned one. That you stand by while your buddy is so cavalier about other folks health, very possibly playing Russian Roulette with the lives of others is sad and you should rethink your ethics on this issue.

You are part of the problem as you preach a very ignorant message that you seem to think isn't harmful -- yet it is. What if you convince just one idiot parent that your views are valid and their kid gets cancer. Do you care? Now you're claiming you were just ribbing me and I took it "too" seriously. . . -- come on that's just such a cheap tactic and not a believable one.  I can say the same about you if I felt the need to deflect the fact my argument isn't panning out. Cheap shot.

 Your belief you know enough is so telling. A true farmer recognizes things change constantly and there is never a time when a real farmer "knows enough".

I'm happy you have a few critters to enjoy.  A few yard birds and bunnies, however, isn't farming.

I do appreciate your comments about my beloved car and laptop - thank you. I hope to go on another bug hunt soon. Too bad you are so far away. A couple beers and some nice breaded cicadas and perhaps you'd see the light. Perhaps I'd be able to convince you to rethink how words are powerful and misrepresenting the truth can harm others. Maybe I could get you to tour Polyface farm and you could see what farming should be like. Maybe after that you might realize that your absurd diatribe could actually harm someone and just because your buddy doesn't care if he hurts folks you still can.

There was a very interesting and fascinating Science Friday program (today) about eating insects.   The link is here http://sciencefriday.com/blogs/05/16/2013/don-t-forget-to-eat-your-creepy-crawlies.html

Enjoy - 

Ingevald

thx B - there's a definite trend to try and get folks more used to insects as food as they very well may be our protein of the future.
Almost got killed today. Sure hope I don't wake up with any injuries I don't feel yet.
Hot out your way?
mgg

Noss,
Thank you. I just woke up and I'm really feeling stiff but otherwise I seem to be fine. I just hope my car can be saved.

I know that eating insects seems disgusting and it took me quite a while to learn to over come my cultural conditioning. In 1981 I had a little farm ands a guy who worked for me used to eat fried grass hoppers. I thought that was disgusting and wouldn't even try one. Eventually though I got used to the idea. I used to live with a woman who was an entomologist - was a good match at the time because I used to collect spiders - and she loved this eatery called the Insect Cafe in Washington, DC. They served a number of dishes made from crickets and meal worms. Eventually out of affection for my sig other I tried the menu and it was pretty good.

The fact is that in the future bugs may turn out to be the only protein we'll be able to afford. It is amazing how much more protein can be raised on a farm by producing insects rather then cattle.

I've done a lot of traveling and in many parts of he world insects are valued as food. I can't eat a lot of the foods that other cultures value -- like fermented duck eggs with fully formed chicks in them or any part of a monkey -- or brains, tripe , stomach, etc. and although there's probably nothing wrong with these, just looking at them awakens my gag reflex.

So, I completely understand your reluctance. 

I' m not a fan of chocolate but I bet someone out there is having a great snack eating chocolate covered cicadas.

I have 2 questions--

one-can you grill these guys since they you got them on a mini stick skewer? how do you like to cook them best? flame grill or pan fry...??

two-how many people are gonna be netting for cicada damage?

Pooya,
You can grill but you need to be careful as they don't stay on the skewers easily once they've been cooked.
I just put those in the pic on skewers as a presentation thing. Those were pan fried in dark sesame oil and anise with garlic.

I'm going to try breading my next batch.
You can grill everything. They are great grilled with those small red bananas we're seeing in the stores lately. After grilling rap in sushi ginger and serve with grilled red bananas and spicy brown rice and Thai beer.
Or slice lamb very thin and rap the cicadas in the lamb slices (if you over cook for even a second this dish will fail) and serve with jellied figs.
Or grill on skewer with long thin chicken slices and serve with a peanut sesame oil sauce.

I don't understand question #2, If you are asking if your figs need protection that was covered in an earlier post and the consensus was you don't need to worry about your trees. If that's not what you're asking - please clarify.

cu
mgg