More Chirp, Less Moo! Cricket Seasoning goes Mainstream with Orchestra Provisions
Author: McCale Ashenbrener
Solastalgia is distress caused by environmental change and its impact on people and their home environment. The anxiety is real. The American Psychological Association created a 69-page climate change guide to help mental health care providers navigate the climate-induced melancholy of their patients. Kate Stoddard created Orchestra Provisions, an artisan specialty cricket seasoning, from solastalgia and a deep sense of love and responsibility for the wild places that raised her.
Stoddard continues a legacy of outdoor adventuring and enlightened entrepreneurship in Idaho. Her father, Russ Stoddard, wrote Rise Up: How to Build a Socially Conscious Business. The idea for Orchestra Provisions took root while Stoddard and her partner were managing a river rafting business, starting construction on a new home, purchasing a shuttle business and raising their newborn son Wren in a cute little airstream trailer in Stanley, Idaho. Yet Stoddard’s passion and purpose cared not for better timing. Her recent masters of the science of nutrition, an urgency to create more sustainable food systems, and a deep culinary curiosity led her to crickets.
Stoddard admits that she is still a burger girl, “but let’s face it people, we all have to do less of that. More Chirp, Less Moo!” According to the bbc.com “If cattle were their own nation, they would be the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, after China and the US. By reducing one’s consumption of animal protein by half, they can cut their diet’s carbon footprint by more than 40%.” One ounce of cricket powder contains 19 grams of protein and loads of iron, fiber and healthy fatty acids. Cricket’s require less resources as they reproduce quickly and use a fraction of the land and water than the meat industry.
Stoddard was not the only one craving more sustainable solutions to our climate crisis. She won the 2019 Trailmix pitch competition during Boise startup week. Her cricket seasonings, with over eight flavors like pico-grillo, chai-spice, and togarashi, can be found on shelves at Albertsons flagship stores and the Co-op in both Boise & Meridian. Those interested in using less packaging can dabble with her spices in bulk as well as her therapeutic line of golden milk, Mayan cocoa green smoothie mix and crimson root at Roots Zero Waste Market and the Vervain Collective Apothecary in Garden City. The Boise Fry Company is also on board with three flavors of custom cricket salts. Check out orchestraprovisions.com and follow her on Facebook and Instagram for recipes and news on happenings in the entolution. There you can learn more about her femme-ento warrior team of inspired world-class female athletes with her same shared values of promoting sustainable food systems and saving wild spaces.
“Boise is booming, and with an influx of growth we have to remember that the things that make it special are worth protecting,” Stoddard reflects. “Just like a group of crickets is called an orchestra, individuals with a shared vision can orchestrate change. People motivated by a common cause are capable of generating a positive future for the health of the individual and simultaneously the health of the earth.” (516)
