Charlotte LR Payne
Charlotte LR Payne
  • About
  • Research
    • Traditional entomophagy in Japan >
      • An overview
      • Wild foraging and food insecurity
      • Imported insects compensate for a decline in wild foraging
    • The ‘semi domestication’ of wasps for use as food in contemporary Japan >
      • What can we learn from insect 'semi-domestication'?
    • Public health and edible insects
    • Wild and semi-wild harvesting in Zimbabwe
    • Wild harvesting in DRC
    • Gender roles in insect foraging and management
    • Edible insects in San Antonio Etlatongo, Oaxaca, Mexico
  • Publications
  • Blog
  • 日本語

Zimbabwe: Termites!

11/30/2013

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We arrived in Zimbabwe on Monday and headed straight to the rural villages in the Northeast, where we're hoping to do some fieldwork next March. 

Here are some images of how the villagers use the termite mounds found throughout the area:
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November

11/23/2013

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November marks the final days of Autumn and the first days of winter in Japan. There are no fireworks, but the Autumn leaves are stunning, and it`s also the beginning of a new year in the world of the tea ceremony. 
This week has been very characteristic of November:

On Tuesday, my landlord and landlady took me to the neighboring town of Asuke, where the autumn leaves are lit up at night (photos above and right).

On Wednesday, I went to Tokyo courtesy of NHK, who wanted me to take three bottles of giant hornet liquor to the studios for Thursday morning's TV show. The show was about Ena, the city where I live, and included some scenes about entomophagy.

Finally, on Friday and Saturday I went to Saitama, to attend a tea event celebrating the new year (photos below).
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Preparing the ash and charcoal for the tobacco tray
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Checking out the flowers - pink and white tsubaki, and some autumn leaves
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New Year = excuse to wear a very very nice kimono :)
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Takizawa-san, teishu for the day (= a lot of hard work)
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Seasonal tea sweets
..But, just when Japan is (arguably) at its most beautiful, I`m leaving!

I`m going to Zimbabwe for the next couple of weeks, where the rainy season is just beginning. In my very limited experience of African rural life, the first rains prompt events that are not dissimilar from the autumn harvest in mountainous Japan: Mushrooms emerging overnight on the forest floor, and all sorts of social insects coming out in their hundreds.. 
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Mushrooms after the rains (Congo)
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Termites after the rains (Congo)
Back in two weeks!
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Kabuki!

11/17/2013

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Yesterday was the Kushihara cultural festival - and my role was to man the reception desk for the first half of the day, and then to act the part of an old lady - Sanuki no o-tsubone-san - in the afternoon Kabuki performance!

It was great. Sanuki is a married woman, so she has plucked eyebrows and blacked out teeth, and carries a small dagger in the belt of her kimono. The photo on the left shows me and Yuko as Sanuki and Awa, the two old ladies.



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Enaka entomophagy event

11/13/2013

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On November 10th, we held an entomophagy event, with 26 guests and 9 staff...
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It was great! Everyone who came was really nice, and we made A LOT of Italian food with insects (including 18 pizzas, with no leftovers! There was a bit of leftover pasta and salad, but people took these home as souvenirs...)
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Finally, I wanted to give everyone something to take away but decided in the end to hold a lottery - everyone received a silkworm chrysalis, and inside one chrysalis I put a picture of a giant hornet. The person who opened their chrysalis to find the giant hornet would receive a 750ml bottle of giant hornet liquor.
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By fortunate coincidence, the person who had the giant hornet picture was an 8 year old girl. Why is this fortunate? Because, after drinking 10-year-old hornet liquor for the first time just a few days ago, I can confirm that in 10 years time the alcohol in this bottle will be delicious, & comparable to a good Scotch - with added hornets. By this time, she'll be 18, which is the legal drinking age in the UK. So - all's well that ends well.

If you would like to try some of these Italian insect recipes, let me know! I've uploaded the event recipe booklet below, but if you are a non-Japanese speaker and would like to know more about cooking with insects, please email me at charlotte.payne@gmail.com.
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Kushihara hebo (wasp) festival!

11/13/2013

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On November 3rd, about 1000 people gathered in Kushihara to celebrate the wasp harvest...
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The photo on the left shows the winners of the contest, first place with a 5.04kg nest: A nice example of how a good relationship can result in a winning wasp nest...:)
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The whole festival was brilliant, but my favourite part was definitely helping to take the nests from the hives, one by one (130 hives in total!)
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After the festival we spent a few hours taking wasp larvae out of the nests and cooking them...
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Also I should add that my wasp nest, which had finished at least a week before the festival, was by far the lightest...apparently this was due to the poisonous snake that I lovingly killed and fed to them just a month before :)

(Next time i try feeding a poisonous snake to my wasps, I'll be sure to clean out the insides properly. And there's yet another sentence I never imagined I'd be writing)
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