Flying ants and peas

I have just being going back to my childhood when I helped me granny shell fresh peas and noticed the air outside my kitchen window suddenly filled with flying ants!!! Kill! I always enjoyed helping me granny take the peas from their cases and yesterday evening I indulged myself in this practice whilst making my tea and tried to ignore the grey winged beasties fluttering eractically in the summer air and tapping against my kitchen window and falling dramatically to the ground.

Did you know that the leaf cutter ant is considered a delicacy particularly in Brazil's Amazon basin? Apparently they are at their best at the beginning of the rainy season when the females leave the nest in huge numbers moving sluggishly enough to be easy prey. They are caught by the basket load and eaten either raw or roasted with salt. Their taste is nutty and highly appreciated by their culinary devotees. It is customary to eat the ants between the months of September and November when the ants grow wings to leave the nest. Only the females are eaten. How can they tell which is which? Who ever thought... "hmm yummy squirming wingless ants for tea"?

I think I will stick to my peas and new potatoes with fresh mint and English lamb chops. Call me old fashioned.