New Iberia

New Iberia Parish is home of Bayou Teche...take a look at a google map, you'll see a large oblong dark mass. That's the bayou, providing many acres of water-based habitat for untold creatures. This is also major agricultural territory, sugarcane grows anywhere you can drive a tractor. More about the cane in a minute.

This is also, historically, rice growing territory. A perfect location with warm, sunny days, and plenty of water. More than two hundred years ago, when the British cruelly rounded up and shipped the Acadians out of SE Canada (does this story sound familiar?), a few French were already living in this watery place. They eventually welcomed the Acadians, who had been wandering for 10 years looking for a place to call home. The Acadians lived off the land, fishing, hunting and growing whatever they needed to live. With them, came the language, cooking style and music we now call Cajun. This area has been called Louisiana Eden, because of the beauty and abundance. Rice was grown, but not for money: they grew just enough to eat and barter with neighbors. Today, the Conrad Rice Mill is the oldest operating rice mills in the country. It was begun in 1912. Mike Davis and his wife bought it 30 years ago, and it operates just like it did 50 years ago, with just a few updates, and a staff of 21 people. The first photo is a vintage cart, used in the mill to move the bags of rice around. The rice is all grown locally, with the exception of the asian rice that is blended with local rice for the pecan brown rice, and is milled by local hands. Nothing goes to waste. The bran is sold to chicken farmers for $9/100 pounds, the chaff is given to local farmers and gardeners (free) for garden mulch and bedding for animals, and all the broken rice goes into crackers and other products that are sold in the company store. Mr. Davis is marketing the rice in every grocery chain in the state, and many chains across the country. It was a fascinating tour, even though the mill was not operating (Saturday, a day off). The second photo is some unhulled rice, by the scales, outside the mill. We saw the bagging area and the hulling machines (not operating). The old place looks like it will fall down any day, but they are doing a bigger and bigger business every year, and proud of it.





Hollie, our guide at the Konrico Rice Mill, www.conradricemill.com, sent us just down the road to Bon Creole Lunch Counter for a late lunch. Don't you love the building?!? Inside, we ordered at the counter, and took our giant shrimp po'boy to the wooden table. On the wall were deer and elk skulls and antlers,and pictures of all things Cajun. We were the only English speakers in the place, but didn't feel at all unwelcome. After stopping just short of licking the paper our sandwich was wrapped in, we waddled to the truck.

LA highway 86 meanders along the Bayou Teche for a way, and we decided to follow it to St. Martinsville, the original home of the Cajuns. There, we saw the statue of Evangaline (you can hear The Band singing now, can't you?!?), and saw the oak under which she found her long lost love, and her heart was broken. There is also a statue of Longfellow, who penned the famous poem chronicalling the love story. Of course, the St. Martin Catholic Church is there, the original home to the Cajuns. Beside the church are the graves of several priests, who came here from Canada, Belguium and France, among other places.

After seeing the sights in the tiny town, we drove back towards Broussard. All day, we have been surrounded by sugarcane fields. In every direction, there are small fires, billowing white smoke indicating high moisture, in the fields. We pass many tractors and trucks, pulling very tall-sided trailers, filled with the freshly cut cane. There are several cane processing plants, scattered throughout the parish, all billowing yet more white smoke in the initial processing stage.

The fields are burned to reduce the dried leaves, and to chase away the snakes. Only small sections are burned at a time. Cane used to be harvested by hand, slave-labor, but now it is done with big harvesters, much like the corn-picker my daddy used to pick corn. The cane is cut, by the machine, close to the ground. The sugar content is highest at ground level. It's then dumped, leaves already shucked and strewn back in the field, into the following trailers. When the trailers are filled, they are then hitched to either a truck or another tractor, usually two trailers at a time, and hauled quickly to the processor. The longer the cane sits, the more sugar it loses. Sort of like harvesting corn. The canes can be cut up to about 8 times, but each harvest yeilds less and less sugar, so eventually the justification to till and replant is there. We saw fields of varying ages, interspersed with the cut fields. The road sides were strewn with cane debris, reminding us both of home, when the roadsides are littered with debris from the cotton harvest. Mud is everywhere! The fields are knee deep, between the high rows of cane, the trucks and tractors are all totally encrusted head high.

With all this sugarcane production, there also comes higher levels of pesticides in the bayou. The phosphorus levels in the water are also high, but the phsoporus levels are naturally high in the soil here. It is a pretty landscape, the tall green cane for as far as the eye can see. It's also an ingredient in the gas, helping with the other big business in southern Louisiana: oil.

We stopped for gas in New Iberia, at the Cracker Barrel Freedom Fuel station. Not a Cracker Barrel in sight, but the Freedom Fuel had a sign on the pump, "...made primarily from Louisiana crude, refined by Louisiana men and women." That sign tells the rest of the economic story here. For miles and miles, we can always tell when we're approaching a town. The preponderance of buildings is home to businesses supporting the oil industry. Industrial pipes and cranes and repair services and materials of every kind. The billboards on the highways are all about oil industry businesses, and support businesses of every kind. There are even services to haul crews for shift changes! There are refineries everywhere, too. And, there is strong feeling about the sugarcane and oil industry. Gas stations have large signs letting everyone know there is NO sugar in their gas. It is a curious marriage, the industry and the agriculture.

One more comment about the businesses here. Since leaving Mobile, we've had to buy all our produce from the grocery stores. I really thought we'd see more locally grown food. And, ok, two more comments! There is NO recycling anywhere! We've hauled our recycled stuff, bags in the back of our truck, since we left NC. There was one place in NO that took our cans and paper, but we have wine bottles (I won't say how many!), plastic, cans and we're beginning to accumulate paper again. I asked at the local Albertson's grocery, and four people said, yes, there is recycling here in Broussard, but they take it to Lafayette. Baloney! We couldn't find a recycle spot in Lafayette today, either. We'll continue to haul our trash until we find a place.