For the first official contest on the Rebuild website "Pest or Dinner?," we are looking for nutrient-dense foods that are also known to be pests. The unpublished list of depression buster foods contains a number of meats that many of us would consider "exotic" at best. There are definitely some animals on the list that are nutrient dense and considered "pesky" in their live state. It's your task to nominate pests that may also be depression buster foods. See the contest rules for details.
Missy nominates the triops, a tadpole shrimp which has survived since the days of the dinosaur. Missy writes:
My kids have a Triops, which is a crustacean that was also around during the dinosaur days. I'm thinking that since crustaceans are a good source of Omega-3s that this would probably be a good depression buster food. We probably would need to get a few more to
make a meal out of them though.
So Missy thinks they are a nutrient dense food. A nutrient profile for a triops is not available at this time, but I am sure that it is on the top of the list at the USDA for updates to their database. In the meantime, here is a possible profile based on the profile of another crustacean.
But do they meet the pest requirement? Missy reports that they do:
Three little Triops hatched a few days after we put the eggs in the water. They swam around looking cute for a day or so, but suddenly there were two. After a while we noticed that of the the two remaining, one grew faster and bigger than the other. Then we
woke up one morning to discover that the big one had EATEN the smaller one!
They are definitely pests to each other, but I consider it a pest because I am the one that has to take care of it. I can't wait to be rid of it.
Hmmmm.... Maybe I'll eat just eat it and get the whole thing over with! I could use some extra omega 3's!
Thoughts or comments anyone? Pest or Dinner?
How would you prepare this possibly nutrient-dense food?
Comments (4)
I don't know how pesty those are especially if they are going to just eat each other up.
I bet they taste like shrimp.
Posted by Pam | March 9, 2007 11:04 AM
Posted on March 9, 2007 11:04
I was just looking at the Wikipedia article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notostraca
They look a lot like shrimp. Who knew. And apparently you can buy the eggs and hatch out the triops pretty quickly. We may need to try that.
Amanda
Posted by Amanda Rose | March 9, 2007 11:31 AM
Posted on March 9, 2007 11:31
Triops have been tested as a possible food source in Africa by Scientists.
No one but no one liked eating them seemingly.
Can anyone blame them?
If you want to try eating one, go for Triops cancriformis, it's more of a meal. :-)
If you are looking for unusual protein rich super foods. Then look no further than Cyclop-eeze.
Probably the 'best' natural food on the planet.
http://www.cyclop-eeze.com/
Shame it's only given to aquatic animals for some reason.
Posted by Stuart Halliday | March 9, 2007 12:27 PM
Posted on March 9, 2007 12:27
Thanks for the info, Stuart! I wonder how that Cyclop-eeze tastes. We may have to have a blog dinner to sample some of these items.
Amanda
Posted by Amanda Rose | March 10, 2007 12:08 PM
Posted on March 10, 2007 12:08