{"id":700811,"date":"2026-05-28T21:23:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T21:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/700811\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T21:23:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T21:23:11","slug":"jiminy-cricket-these-crickets-are-delicious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/700811\/","title":{"rendered":"Jiminy Cricket! These crickets are delicious"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Protein is having a moment<\/a>, with powders available in a variety of flavors and base ingredients. Common grocery store options include whey, pea, hemp, and soy-based supplements.<\/p>\n

\"Montse<\/p>\n

April Van Buren<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

Michigan Public<\/p>\n

Montse Rosales Osoria assembles a package of “The Green Leap,” a cricket-based protein powder. <\/p>\n

The Green Leap<\/a>, a family-owned business based in Grand Rapids derives its protein powder from a source you probably won\u2019t find at Meijer: crickets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not something that I came up [with] one day,\u201d said co-owner Montse Rosales Osoria. \u201cNo, it’s something that has been consumed for centuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to The Green Leap\u2019s label, 2 tablespoons of cricket powder carry 10 grams of protein. That\u2019s comparable to other protein powder options. Crickets are also a good source of vitamins, minerals and fiber<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The cricket powder is primarily sold at the Fulton Street Farmer\u2019s Market. The face-to-face interaction allows Rosales Osoria to educate customers about the nutritional and environmental benefits of cricket protein. Plus, the chance to convince them that bug consumption isn\u2019t so scary.<\/p>\n

Low-waste, ethical farming<\/p>\n

The cricket farm is housed in a small barn in Howard City, where Rosales Osoria and her husband raise tens of thousands of crickets. But the operation started with only 500 in their home basement.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we were joking, my husband and I \u2026 and we went to bed, and the next day we kept talking about this. And yeah, it was more than a joke,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While searching online she came across the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations\u2019 page on insect consumption<\/a>. As she learned more about the nutritional and environmental benefits of insect farming, she thought more seriously about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m from Mexico, and there, edible insects are part of our culture. And so when we moved here, around 4 or 5 years ago, we couldn’t find any products \u2026 using edible insects,\u201d Rosales Osoria said.<\/p>\n

\"Big,<\/p>\n

April Van Buren<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

Michigan Public<\/p>\n

The Green Leap utilizes vertical farming, minimizing the amount of land they take up. <\/p>\n

After that they began raising crickets in their home basement, with every life cycle they\u2019ve learned better ways to care for, harvest, and process the crickets.<\/p>\n

And they said it takes so few resources to raise crickets that the whole farm only produces about one 13 gallon size trash bag of waste every 50 days or so.<\/p>\n

Life at the farm<\/p>\n

Inside the barn on the shelves are large blue plastic storage tubs, each one with food, water, and about 9,000 crickets inside. The tubs are fully open, no lid. The crickets don\u2019t jump out.<\/p>\n

Rosales Osoria gives them everything they need, like space to move around and a temperature-controlled environment. The crickets live a pretty cushy life, all the way to the end, because, she says, she tries to follow their natural life cycle to determine the best harvest time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey go into hibernation mode. It’s called diapause,\u201d she said. The insects go into a kind of hibernation induced by cold temperatures. \u201cSo it’s basically how we end their life, it’s very humane. It’s not a disruption or anything for them, and we freeze them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next stage happens inside the Grand Rapids Downtown Market at an incubator kitchen. There, Rosales Osoria roasts and grinds the crickets, and packages them for sale. No other ingredients are added to the powder.<\/p>\n

\n 1 of 4
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0TheGreenLeap_EDITED_Credit_AprilVanBuren-04.jpg\n <\/p>\n

Crickets hop around inside their enclosure. Several rows of paper egg cartons over them spaces to burrow and rest. <\/p>\n

April Van Buren \/ Michigan Public<\/p>\n

\n 2 of 4
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0TheGreenLeap_EDITED_Credit_AprilVanBuren-03.jpg\n <\/p>\n

Each blue tub indicates hatch, harvest, and feeding dates. Montse tracks each cycle closely, and can trace each packet of final product back to the exact tub where they were raised. <\/p>\n

April Van Buren \/ Michigan Public<\/p>\n

\n 3 of 4
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0TheGreenLeap_EDITED_Credit_AprilVanBuren-02.jpg\n <\/p>\n

Dozens of brown, thumbnail-sized crickets crawl across the surface of an egg carton.<\/p>\n

April Van Buren \/ Michigan Public<\/p>\n

\n 4 of 4
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0TheGreenLeap_EDITED_Credit_AprilVanBuren-06.jpg\n <\/p>\n

Bags of frozen crickets are stored in a freezer at the farm until Montse is ready to transport them to the kitchen in Grand Rapids for roasting and cooking. <\/p>\n

April Van Buren \/ Michigan Public<\/p>\n

Convincing the community<\/p>\n

The final product smells and tastes nutty and earthy, though not overpoweringly so. The color and consistency is comparable to cocoa powder.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ask people all the time and they say that it tastes like sunflower seed. Some others say tahini,\u201d Rosales Osoria said.<\/p>\n

When it comes to incorporating cricket powder into her own family\u2019s meals, she described herself as a \u201cfairy,\u201d sprinkling a few teaspoons on anything and everything. But when it comes to introducing farmer\u2019s market shoppers to the product, she likes to hand out no-bake energy bites.<\/p>\n

The recipe includes oats, sunflower seed butter, maple syrup, vanilla, chocolate chips, and, of course, cricket powder. Trying it this way helps skeptical customers.<\/p>\n

\n 1 of 2
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0TheGreenLeap_EDITED_Credit_AprilVanBuren-18.jpg\n <\/p>\n

Montse gathers the ingredients for cricket powder energy bites, including a large plastic container of cricket powder.<\/p>\n

April Van Buren \/ Michigan Public<\/p>\n

\n 2 of 2
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0TheGreenLeap_EDITED_Credit_AprilVanBuren-19.jpg\n <\/p>\n

Montse hands out these energy bites at farmer’s markets. They can be chilled in the fridge before serving, and don’t require any baking. <\/p>\n

April Van Buren \/ Michigan Public<\/p>\n

\u201cI can see parents really trying to encourage their kids, and the kids really are feeling nervous, but they do it,\u201d Rosales Osoria said. \u201cAnd then these parents are like, ‘I’m glad you like it!’ and then move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s more difficult because of our upbringing, and everything that we think about insects that are not related to food,\u201d she said. \u201cSo it’s kind of hard for adults \u2026 but once I talk with them and explain facts \u2014 nutritious benefits, environmental benefits \u2014 that’s when people [are] willing to pass that barrier and give it a try.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Protein is having a moment, with powders available in a variety of flavors and base ingredients. Common grocery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,341194,341195,287494,341196,341197,126988,341198,341199,341200,341201,85],"class_list":["post-700811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-cricket-powder","tag-cricket-powder-farmers-market","tag-cricket-protein","tag-edible-crickets","tag-edible-insects","tag-grand-rapids","tag-insect-consumptions","tag-mercedes-mejia","tag-michigan-public-food-podcast","tag-michigan-public-the-dish","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}