Cricket Farming: Not What You Might Think!
One question we get asked more than any other is ‘what does the process of cricket farming and harvesting look like’. Perhaps you’re envisioning the Grilo team running through fields with butterfly nets, nimbly catching wild crickets. Well, whilst we’re pretty quick on our feet, the process looks a little different from that…
Being passionate about protecting this beautiful planet and all its life forms, it’s incredibly important to us that the crickets are cared for and harvested in an ethical and humane way. That’s why we choose to source our crickets from Entomo Farms, a family owned business located in Ontario, Canada and the only supplier of organic cricket powder (or cricket flour) in the world.
Cricket eggs – initial stage of cricket farming
The Cricket Farm
Like you, we were incredibly curious to see what life looks like for our favourite protein-heavy and highly nutritious insects (learn why you should start eating bugs here!), so the Grilo team paid a visit back in October 2017. The cricket farm was founded by three brothers, one being Darren Goldin (vice president of farming operations), who kindly played tour guide for the day.
Learning from very close how crickets live in the cricket condos
Darren and his brothers created Entomo Farms because they saw producing edible insects and insect protein as a concrete and practical way of responding to the global food, water and natural resource crisis that’s hot on our heels. This genuine altruistic sentiment mirrors our own, and is another key reason we source our organic cricket powder from Entomo farms.
A Big Hop Forward
The Goldin brothers are trailblazers in their own right. In the past, crickets have been farmed in large barrels; a system that was both inefficient and less humane than the ‘cricket condos’ developed by Darren himself. In their natural environment, crickets swarm in dark, warm locations. The condos are designed to mimic that habitat. They’re free to hop between stations or burrow down into the condos as they see fit. The crickets are then harvested right towards the end of their natural life cycle which is around 6 weeks. Darren showed us around the 5 star insects accommodation, explaining the methods of care and upkeep, feeding and harvesting.
The roasting is done at a different facility. It almost smells like pop corn there!
Happy Crickets, Happy Earth
We were so stoked to meet Darren and bond over our shared passion for conserving this sacred planet and creating and consuming healthy, sustainable and future-conscious food, aka edible bugs! We can also rest easy knowing our chirpy chums are leading free range lives and only being harvested at the end of their natural life cycle. Thanks so much to Darren and the wonderful team at Entomo Farms for showing us around and for taking such good care of our crickets!
Pedro, Martina, Camila and Lucas at the Cricket Farm front door, in Canada
A big thanks to Courtney Franz for writing about our experience at the cricket farm! 🙂