May 2, 2014 Louisiana Crawfish Farm, Opelousas

May 2, 2014

We had gone to sleep early last night, so woke early also and got up around 5:45 as the early shift at Lowe’s was arriving.  Went to a nearby McDonalds where we had breakfast sandwiches and Greg got his coffee while we checked emails and read some.  Since we had some time before we had to leave for Roanoke, I uploaded some photos to the blog, checked emails and Greg read the paper.

We arrived at the Tietje Crawfish farm about 8:15 for our 9:00 tour and found our host, Burt Tietje finishing up some chores.  He showed us around this 120 year old farm that he inherited from his Dad, where he grows rice, crawfish, soybeans and veggies.  He is using a tunnel house to grow produce (government subsidized thanks to Michelle Obama) and apparently does well at a local farmers market with his exotic lettuces, tomatoes, peppers, artichokes and more.  We had a lot of questions about rice growing and he seemed to enjoy explaining the process.

 tunnel house, like a greenhouse, only plants are in ground

 rice fields just beginning to grow

 crawfish pond with some of his predators, which include birds, raccoons, snakes, eels, frogs, turtles

 The traps are wire covered cages with funnel entries.  The crawfish come in to the bait but he said they don't have much of a brain so they just wait for him to collect them rather than trying to escape.

 He has a unique boat the is propelled by a wheel that digs into the muddy bottom.

 Showing the difference between males and females.

The school bus with 38 first graders  followed by a dozen or so parents arrived at 9:00 and Burt went into action.   I was impressed with these first graders who knew about molting, hibernation, predators, omnivores, herbivores and carnivores and were comfortable with biodiversity and other terms.  Mr. Tietje is well-educated and worked in the business world for 25 years, as well as doing some teaching, so he is well-spoken with just a soft Louisiana accent.  He admitted his Dad and most of the other farmers think some of his ideas are a bit crazy, but he is enthusiastic and really seems to enjoy his work.

He has 65 acres of crawfish ponds, which double as rice fields, with 12 traps per acre.  Seems the two crops are very compatible as they both require  wet and dry cycles and the mudbugs conveniently hibernate around the time that the rice has to be harvested.  He said mother nature used to take care of the wet/dry issues, but they are having to do a lot more controlling water since “the drought from Texas moved in”! 

In a good year he’ll get  20,000 pounds of crawfish.  This year hasn’t been good because of the long, cold winter, but as a farmer that’s one of those things…  After the tour he took Greg and I over to the Exchange, where 40 local crawfish farmers bring their bugs to be cleaned, sized, bagged and shipped.  

An interesting morning!

Next stop was Oil and Gas Park in Jennings, where we saw some baby and grown alligators and had a picnic lunch along a lake.

We planned to attend a concert in Opelousa later today, so headed that way and stopped at Le Vieux Village in Opelousa, where they have re-located several old buildings from the area including a doctor’s office, a schoolhouse,  train depot, old homes and such.  The train depot now houses The Orphan Train museum and we spent a good while in there.  The docent was an older man who, it turns out, had a father who was one of the orphans sent to Louisiana in 1907 at age 2.   He had LOTS of stories and an amazing memory and if they hadn’t closed at 3:00 we might STILL be there!  The orphan trains ran from New York from 1865 through 1929 and deposited thousands of orphaned or abandoned kids all over the US.

Opelousa considers itself the Spice capital of Louisiana (Tony Chachere's and Zatterains are both big  names here. And is also home to zydeco and swamp music.

Saw our first painted fiddle – and discovered these throughout town.   We found a nice spot to camp at their City Park – complete with electric – and then went back into town for an outdoor concert near the courthouse square. 

We were early, so sat and read and people-watched.  We were expecting zydeco or Cajun music but instead listened to a cover band do southern and other rock… a little disappointing, but a nice day nonetheless.  People here are very friendly, often saying hi or how ya doin’? or other greetings.  There were a few booths set up on the street that was closed off and we sampled a sweet potatoe pie that was delicious!  Opelousa is the Yam capital of the world, after all.

Scratch & Sniff of the Day:  Sweet Potato Pie

Back to City Park where several softball games were winding down.  Had some soup and snacks.  The evening is pleasantly cool.