{"id":48416,"date":"2026-10-09T23:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T23:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/48416\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T23:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T23:16:13","slug":"will-minnesotan-restaurants-dish-up-invasive-crayfish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/48416\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Minnesotan restaurants dish up invasive crayfish?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was originally published by MPR News.<\/p>\n

If you can’t beat ’em, eat ’em!<\/p>\n

That’s the rallying cry behind a small business in northern Minnesota that harvests rusty crayfish \u2014 an invasive species that has infested at least 300 lakes across the state \u2014 and sells them, live, to people and restaurants.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

And once established in a lake or river, rusty crayfish reproduce rapidly. There\u2019s no known way to get rid of them.<\/p>\n

But their populations can be managed. It\u2019s 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 \u2014 if Minnesotans are willing to eat them.<\/p>\n

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

On a warm August evening, Yusef Orest steered his small, flat-bottomed boat across the lake\u2019s still surface. In a small bay, he pulled up a line of minnow traps from the lake bottom.<\/p>\n

\"Rusty<\/p>\n

Yusef Orest empties a rusty crayfish trap on Caribou Lake on Aug. 24, on Caribou Lake in Lutsen, Minnesota.<\/p>\n

Chuck Olsen for MPR News<\/p>\n

“Ooh, this is a pretty full basket,\u201d he exclaimed as he pulled up the first trap. \u201cThis is probably a solid pound of crayfish right here. That’s a meal for someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“It’s really not rocket science or overly complicated. It’s a lot of work, but it’s also a lot of fun,\u201d Orest said, gazing at the sunset across the lake. “This isn’t a bad office.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s been “obsessed” with crayfish since he was a kid, he said; he’s always loved to catch them.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s already well over 2,000.<\/p>\n

Orest\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Amanda Weberg, aquatic invasive species supervisor for the group, describes rusty crayfish as \u201clittle lawn mowers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just mow the vegetation,\u201d she explained. \u201cIf you have a wild rice lake, there’s not going to be any more wild rice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orest calls the work a \u201clabor of love.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

“I have to be pretty blunt: This is a marginal business,\u201d he said. \u201cHarvesting invasive species doesn’t pay well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orest has little trouble catching crayfish. But he has more trouble selling it in Minnesota, where crayfish isn\u2019t as ingrained in local culture and cuisine as it is in the South.<\/p>\n

He hosts a community crayfish boil every year and sells at farmer\u2019s markets and online.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t arrive in time. So they called Orest, who met them in Hinckley with the fresh cargo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said, \u2018You saved our wedding!\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Orest has one restaurant client: B\u00fbcheron, a French American restaurant in Minneapolis. Last year, it won a prestigious James Beard Award for best new restaurant in the country.<\/p>\n

“He just makes it really easy for the chefs to use it,\u201d 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. \u201cThey\u2019re as fresh as you can get them,\u201d said Ritter.<\/p>\n

\"Rusty<\/p>\n

Rusty crayfish harvested by Yusef Orest on Caribou Lake on Aug. 24, on Caribou Lake in Lutsen, Minnesota.<\/p>\n

Chuck Olsen for MPR News<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one of our biggest hits last winter,\u201d Ritter said. The rich crayfish sauce complements the leaner chicken. He describes crayfish as a \u201cmilder lobster,\u201d with a sweeter taste.<\/p>\n

Ritter visited Orest this summer to see his operation in person. That\u2019s when he learned the crayfish he serves is an invasive species. He said now he wants to develop more recipes using it.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Caribou Lake Association President Tom Rider describes the crayfish invasion as a \u201cslow-moving freight train.\u201d He said they\u2019re pulling tens of thousands of crayfish out of the lake, and the number they\u2019re removing from the water is skyrocketing every year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re certainly seeing their footprint increase and their densities increase exponentially,\u201d Rider said.<\/p>\n

The organization spends about $15,000 annually on its crayfish eradication efforts. \u201cWe feel pretty confident that the harvesting is productive,\u201d said Rider. \u201cI am concerned about the sustainability of the effort long term. Because it\u2019s a lot of work.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt just takes a $15 minnow trap and a little bit of bait,\u201d said Orest. \u201cTie it to a line, throw it in the water, come back a day later, and you have a low-cost meal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 \u2014 an invasive species that has infested at least 300 lakes across the state \u2014 and sells them, live, to people and restaurants. The crayfish,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[3905,37110,36062,4075,4073,4071,4074,4072,68],"class_list":["post-48416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota","tag-environment","tag-fishery","tag-invasive-species","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-dining","tag-minnesota-food","tag-minnesota-grocery-stores","tag-minnesota-restaurant","tag-restaurants"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117413503648803044","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}