Once you get past the crunch, grasshoppers taste almost like chicken.

That first bite is a leap of faith, but it can open a world of possibilities for sustainable eating and managing garden pests, said Sioux Falls resident Veronica Shukla.

Shukla, who also founded Project Food Forest, a nonprofit aimed at making Sioux Falls' landscape more edible, first came across entomophagy (bug eating) on her path to finding a sustainable way of life.

And this summer, she decided to take her bug-eating knowledge to the community.

"You have to push past that gross factor ... and then once you do it, you realize, oh, it wasn't so bad," Shukla said.

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She'll teach a new community education class on entomophagy in early August. It's a class for kids, but all are welcome to attend.

Kelli Fahey, youth program specialist for community education, is excited about the bug-eating class because it brings something unique to the course catalog.

"We want to offer it because it might not be found anywhere else," Fahey said.

Many bugs are edible, Shukla said, and insects are a sustainable source of protein.

Shukla hopes to teach kids to respect bugs as living beings as well.

"If you're going to kill something, it should be that you're making use of its body," Shukla said.

She doesn't eat bugs regularly, but she has caught and cooked grasshoppers. She's found that catching and freezing them is the most humane way to kill the insects. Then, she removes the back legs, cooks them in coconut oil, and, voila!

The grasshoppers are crunchy, but the meat has sort of a wild game flavor that's tough to identify, Shukla said.

She said her 10-year-old son, who can polish off a plate of grasshoppers himself, describes them as tasting like chicken.

The entomophagy class takes place from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Aug. 7 at the Instructional Planning Center. The cost to attend is $29, and you can register on the Sioux Falls School District website.

And as for course supplies?

"The only thing people should have coming in is an open mind and a willingness to try new things," Shukla said. "That's all it takes."

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