In the highlands of Mexico, farmers harvest ant larvae that will end up in some of the nation’s most exclusive restaurants.
Pancho Prieto makes his living collecting escamol—ant larvae—on the high plains of the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí. For the past twenty years, the 57-year-old has anxiously awaited the harvest season, when he can venture into the desert and pilfer eggs from ants’ nests. Sitting with his family around a bonfire, kids and adults alike watch and participate in the cleaning of the escamol while they recount anecdotes from that day’s harvest. The women describe their worry while waiting at home for their husbands and children, watching as ice fell from the sky. None of them had ever seen snow before.
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