From lake to table: Turning Minnesota's invasive crayfish into a local delicacy

This story was originally published by MPR News.

If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em!

That's the rallying cry behind a small business in northern Minnesota that harvests rusty crayfish — an invasive species that has infested at least 300 lakes across the state — and sells them, live, to people and restaurants.

The crayfish, which can grow up to six inches long, are native to the Ohio River valley. They were likely brought to Minnesota as fishing bait. The crustaceans destroy huge amounts of aquatic plant life in lakes, including culturally important wild rice beds.

And once established in a lake or river, rusty crayfish reproduce rapidly. There’s no known way to get rid of them.

But their populations can be managed. It’s a labor-intensive process, but some people in northern Minnesota are setting traps and baiting them with bits of hot dogs and other attractants to catch the crayfish, to both keep lakes healthy and feed people — if Minnesotans are willing to eat them.

Ground zero for the effort is Caribou Lake, ringed by pine trees and rocky cliffs outside Lutsen along the North Shore of Lake Superior.

On a warm August evening, Yusef Orest steered his small, flat-bottomed boat across the lake’s still surface. In a small bay, he pulled up a line of minnow traps from the lake bottom.

"Ooh, this is a pretty full basket,” he exclaimed as he pulled up the first trap. “This is probably a solid pound of crayfish right here. That's a meal for someone.”

He dumps them in a big blue bucket and pulls up the next several traps. They're all full of crayfish, some 4 to 5 inches long. The bottom of the bucket seems to move as the crayfish skitter about on top of one another.

Then, he rebaits the traps with a mixture of frozen minnows and cat food and drops the traps back in the water. From just 20 traps, he collects about 14 pounds of crayfish.

"It's really not rocket science or overly complicated. It's a lot of work, but it's also a lot of fun,” Orest said, gazing at the sunset across the lake. "This isn't a bad office.”

This is a side hustle for Orest, whose day job is in renewable energy. He started the business, called Crawdaddies, about seven years ago. He’s been "obsessed" with crayfish since he was a kid, he said; he's always loved to catch them.

He placed over 100 traps in the lake in May and harvests every two to three days through the end of September. Last year, he pulled about 1,400 pounds of crayfish from the lake. This year, he’s already well over 2,000.

Orest’s work took on extra meaning when he learned the crayfish he was catching are invasive. He received grants from the Cook County Soil and Water Conservation District and other organizations to help purchase equipment.

Amanda Weberg, aquatic invasive species supervisor for the group, describes rusty crayfish as “little lawn mowers.”

“They just mow the vegetation,” she explained. “If you have a wild rice lake, there's not going to be any more wild rice.”

Orest calls the work a “labor of love.” He reported $14,000 in sales this year. It was the first time he broke even. This year, he was able to hire someone part-time to help him harvest.

"I have to be pretty blunt: This is a marginal business,” he said. “Harvesting invasive species doesn't pay well.”

Orest has little trouble catching crayfish. But he has more trouble selling it in Minnesota, where crayfish isn’t as ingrained in local culture and cuisine as it is in the South.

He hosts a community crayfish boil every year and sells at farmer’s markets and online.

Earlier this summer, he got a call from a Twin Cities couple who had planned a crayfish boil for their wedding. But the crayfish didn’t arrive in time. So they called Orest, who met them in Hinckley with the fresh cargo.

“They said, ‘You saved our wedding!’” he said.

Orest has one restaurant client: Bûcheron, a French American restaurant in Minneapolis. Last year, it won a prestigious James Beard Award for best new restaurant in the country.

"He just makes it really easy for the chefs to use it,” chef and co-owner Adam Ritter said of Orest, who cleans and drains the crayfish and ships them overnight in a box with ice packs. “They’re as fresh as you can get them,” said Ritter.

He uses the tail meat as a garnish on a green gazpacho soup. He saves the bodies and shells to make a sauce for a crispy chicken dish. Chicken and crayfish are a classic combination in French cuisine, Ritter explained. He adds a Scandinavian twist by adding Swedish meatballs to the meal.

“It was one of our biggest hits last winter,” Ritter said. The rich crayfish sauce complements the leaner chicken. He describes crayfish as a “milder lobster,” with a sweeter taste.

Ritter visited Orest this summer to see his operation in person. That’s when he learned the crayfish he serves is an invasive species. He said now he wants to develop more recipes using it.

In the meantime, the association of property owners on Caribou Lake has stepped up. For the past two years, the group has paid Orest to trap crayfish. They also have a roster of volunteers who manage about 200 traps of their own.

Caribou Lake Association President Tom Rider describes the crayfish invasion as a “slow-moving freight train.” He said they’re pulling tens of thousands of crayfish out of the lake, and the number they’re removing from the water is skyrocketing every year.

“We're certainly seeing their footprint increase and their densities increase exponentially,” Rider said.

The organization spends about $15,000 annually on its crayfish eradication efforts. “We feel pretty confident that the harvesting is productive,” said Rider. “I am concerned about the sustainability of the effort long term. Because it’s a lot of work.”

That’s why Ritter and Orest hope to inspire more people to eat them, to develop a Midwestern crayfish cuisine and help manage an invasive species at the same time.

“It just takes a $15 minnow trap and a little bit of bait,” said Orest. “Tie it to a line, throw it in the water, come back a day later, and you have a low-cost meal.”