Recent discoveries in a Nevada cave show that early Americans consumed grasshoppers at least as far back as 14,000 years ago. Other cave finds along with ethnographic information show that grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids were ground on metates into a meal, mixed with berries, animal fat, and an unidentified molasses-like substance, and baked into fruitcakes. In the early 19th century Native Americans traded insect fruitcakes to immigrant wagon trains, helping people survive the westward trek. A popular species was the now extinct Rocky Mountain locust, (Melanoplus spretus) the swarms of which made Erath County farming impossible at times. And here is a gaggy bit of news, many dieticians are now saying that its an acceptable dietary practice to replace meat from animals with insects, because of their nutritious bulk and environmentally sustainable existence.

Katy Dycus, “Dining on Locust at Crypt Cave,” Mammoth Trumpet, Volume 39, No. 4 (October, 2024), 1-5.