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Cajun Food, Louisiana History, and a Little Lagniappe

~ Preservation of traditional River Road cuisine, Louisiana history & architecture, and the communities between Baton Rouge & NOLA

Cajun Food, Louisiana History, and a Little Lagniappe

Tag Archives: swamp

Repurposing Swampland

04 Tuesday Feb 2014

Posted by jnewhart in Ascension Parish/River Parishes

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Ascension Parish, Baton Rouge, beignets, boutique shops, Café au lait, Cajun, Coffee, Coffee House, Cypress, cypress logging, Donaldsonville, football field, forest, logging, Louisiana, Louisiana citrus trees, New Orleans, oak tree, Oliphant Images, pond, Red Beans and Rice, Shopping, Sorrento, swamp, swampland, The Cajun Village, tractor, Tractor Barn, tupelo trees, wood duck boxes, wood ducks

Wood Duck BoxThere is a large pond tucked back in the woods behind The Cajun Village. To get to it, you walk between Oliphant Images and the Old Tractor barn, down a freshly cut path through the swamp forest lined with young cypress trees. As it winds its way through oaks and tupelo trees, a feeling of seclusion overcomes you. Nothing but you, the birds, the forest, a peaceful quiet away from the world outside.

Just as soon as you started down the path, it opens up out of the forest into pond about the size of a football field. The pond is surrounded by some secondary growth (Sorrento and most of the swamp land between New Orleans and Baton Rouge was prime-time cypress logging territory until the logging of cypress was banned in the 1920s). The Roberts have diligently landscaped around the pond for the last two year. They’ve planted live oaks, water oaks, the aforementioned cypress, citrus trees, grass.

The goal is to create a park-like setting back in the woods. A perfect place to wander to with a to-go cup of café au lait and belly full of beignets from the Coffee House. A place where you can commune with nature and escape the hustle and bustle of the real world for a few minutes. In fact, the Roberts just installed wood duck boxes around the pond in hopes that we attract some future short-term winged tenants.

White Crane over PondThere aren’t too many parks to be found in Ascension Parish where you can wander around and while away an afternoon. This is mostly due to the layout of the parish – it’s about half rural, half developed, but it has no real cohesiveness in terms of community areas. It truly is a vehicle-oriented area, unless you are in Donaldsonville on the West Bank, which is such an architecturally cohesive town that parks abound throughout it. Which is why the pond at The Cajun Village is such a  blessing. It has been wrested from swampland in which it sat, beautified, and paired with a unique set of boutique shops that already have you walking about and exploring. 

Next time you stop by The Cajun Village, make sure you take a peek back through the woods at the pond – it’s a perfect place to walk off big bowl of Red Beans and Rice!

Cajun Pirogues

20 Friday Dec 2013

Posted by jnewhart in Ascension Parish/River Parishes, Louisiana History

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Cajun, Cajuns, canoe, Cypress, duck hunting, exploring, fiberglass, fisherman, fishing, French, Go-Devils, hard chines, hunting, Jazzy Jewels, Louisiana, marshes, motorboats, Native Americans, New Orleans, Nova Scotia, outdoor culture, paddles, pirogue, plywood, prairies, punting, settling Louisiana, Seven Years War, shallow water, South Louisiana, swamp, The Cajun Village, tools, waterways

Taken by Jeri Melancon of Platinum Portraits by Jeri

Taken by Jeri Melancon of Platinum Portraits by Jeri

In between Jazzy Jewels and lush foliage of the swamp forest that surrounds The Cajun Village lies an old pirogue. Similar to a canoe, but specifically adapted to the Louisiana swamps and marshes, the pirogue has been an intimate part of Louisiana’s outdoor culture for hundreds of years.

Louisiana is known for its swamps and coastal marshes. However, these waterways are incredibly shallow, preventing normal boats from entering them. Thus, when the French arrived in 1719, they had to ditch their large oceangoing vessels in favor of something more suitable to the waterways of Louisiana. They would have used dugout canoes in the beginning, similar to what the Native American tribes in the area used. Over time, the design of the dugout canoes began to morph into something lighter and faster that required less construction time than a dugout canoe: the pirogue.

When the Cajuns arrived in 1763-64 at the end of the Seven Years War, they headed for the swamps, marshes, and bucolic prairies of south and southwest Louisiana, searching for a habitat that was both peaceful and secluded, much like pastoral setting of Nova Scotia. Having found the setting that they were looking for, the Cajuns settled down in south Louisiana. Unfortunately, roads were essentially non-existent at that point in time; another transportation artery had to be found in order to connect one Cajun community to another and from there to the outside world. The lazy bayous and marshes were perfect for this, and the pirogue was the perfect means of transportation for the Cajuns. It allowed them to hunt, fish, connect with kin down the bayou, explore the serpentine and mysterious waterways, and it could also take them to the larger outposts of the French, such as New Orleans. The pirogue quickly became one of the, if not the most, essential tools a Cajun man could have. Not much has changed in the last 250 years in that respect either.

The design of a pirogue allows it  to move through the very shallow water of marshes and be easily turned over to drain any water that may get into the boat. A pirogue has “hard chines” which means that instead of a smooth curve from the gunwales to the keel, there is often a flat bottom which meets the plane of the side. It is propelled by paddles, but can also be pushed with a pole. In Louisiana the boats were constructed of cypress, but unfortunately suitable natural lumber is no longer readily available. Plywood is the common material for modern pirogues. Many modern duck hunters and fisherman in the swamps of south Louisiana use pirogues made of fiberglass, some of which are outfitted with small outboard motors or even “Go-Devils”, a motor with a pivoting drive shaft for use in very shallow waters.

Christmas in Plantation Country

03 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by jnewhart in Ascension Parish/River Parishes

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

alligator, Ascension Parish, Bayou, Bernadette's Restaurant, bonfires on the levee, Cajun, Cajun Village Antiques, Christmas, Christmas collectibles, Coffee House, crab claw ornaments, crawfish ornaments, Cypress, Decoration, Food, garland, Gatorville, gifts, log fires, Louisiana, Louisiana Wines, ornaments, Pieux Fence, pinecone firestarters, plantation country, poinsettas, Redfish scale magnolia, ribbonsg, River Parishes, Slave Cabin, sugarcane harvest, swamp, Tabasco ornaments, The Cabin Restaurant, The Cajun Village, wine bags

Xmas in GatorvilleDecember has finally arrived here in Ascension Parish, and we have been busy decorating The Cabin Restaurant, Bernadette’s Restaurant, and The Cajun Village. All the stores in The Cajun Village have some kind of Christmas special or items to decorate your Christmas tree or house with. There are plenty of Christmas events in the River Parishes area, most notably the Festival of the Bonfires on the Levees.

So here’s a little photo gallery with some images of what Louisiana’s historic plantation country has to offer this Christmas, from gifts, to lights, to good Cajun food and traditions. Enjoy!

Bernadette’s Restaurant
Louisiana wine shop
Cajun Village Antiques

Christmas collectibles in C & C Treasures by Jim Shore
Christmas Decor at C & C Treasures
Christmas on the bayou!

The last of the sugarcane harvest across from The Cabin Restaurant
Pinecone firestarters
Garland and ribbons along The Cabin’s pieux fence

Santa in The Cabin
Santa themed wine bags!
The Courtyard, decorated for the holidays

Wreaths at The Coffee House
We’ll have a log fire going every day when it’s cold at The Cabin
The Cabin, decorated for the holidays

A Christmas Tree in The Cabin
Crawfish Christmas ornaments
Tabasco Christmas ornaments

Santa cypress!
Crab claw ornaments
The magnolia flower is made of redfish scales

Blue crab christmas ornament

Cajun Village Antiques

27 Tuesday Aug 2013

Posted by jnewhart in Ascension Parish/River Parishes

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

alligator, Cajun, Cajun Spices, Cajun Village Antiques, Christmas Orn, Crab, Crawfish, Cypress Knees, Fishing Camp, Handcrafted Artwork, Louisiana, Louisiana Hot Sauce, Santa Claus, swamp, Tabasco, The Cabin Restaurant, The Cajun Village, Tourism

If you look to the top of this page, you’ll notice a mural of a gas station on the side of an old building. That mural is painted on the side of Cajun Village Antiques in The Cajun Village. It depicts the Old Station located down the road on the grounds of The Cabin Restaurant, as well as local personages from the past 40 years and a certain Cajun way of life unique to the Burnside and Sorrento areas of Louisiana.

But the mural is not the only interesting thing about Cajun Village Antiques. Inside, you will find all sorts of Louisiana-themed souvenirs and a few local antiques. When the shop was originally opened several years ago, it primarily sold antiques, but eventually branched out to accommodate the growing market for items like Louisiana-made hot sauces, hand-painted cypress knees, and Christmas Ornaments made out of redfish scales, and more.

So whether you’re a visitor from out-of-town looking for a little piece of Louisiana to take home with you, an antique enthusiast looking for unique pieces, or a lover of handcrafted art by Louisiana artists, Cajun Village Antiques has something for everyone. Stop by soon and find something that suits you!

Cajun Village Antiques
Mural of the Old Station in Burnside
Lawn Crawfish!

Unique signs and cypress driftwood
A nice shady place to take a rest!
Welcome to the Cajun Village!

All sorts of saved cast iron decorative items
Gator
More signs!

Perfect sign for your Fishing Camp
Antiques
Cajun stuff for your kitchen

A beautiful painting of a heron on an old washboard
Gator head!
Welcome

A beautiful mural of the swamp in Cajun Village Antiques
Tabasco Christmas beads

Santa on Cypress bark
Crawfish claw Christmas ornaments
Cajun Christmas!

Antiques
Crab ornaments
Crab ornaments

Painted crab
Cypress frames
Cajun spices

Antique signage

Chewing on Sugar Cane and Shooting Pop Guns

26 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by jnewhart in Ascension Parish/River Parishes, Louisiana History

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

Ascension Parish, Louisiana, Louisiana history, Pop Gun, River Road, Sugarcane, swamp, The Cabin Restaurant, The Cajun Village

Pop GunA few days ago, I was sitting in the office here at The Cabin Restaurant, replying to emails and answering phone calls when Al Robert, the owner of the restaurant walked in. Al has lived here in the Burnside area for over 60 years, well before the area became industrially developed. He often likes to reminisce about how things used to be, especially how simple things were in the past compared to today.

Last Friday, Al’s eye came to rest on a basket of hand-carved wooden pop-guns. The basket was one of several items that had been cleaned out of the Firehouse over at The Cajun Village in anticipation of a new tenant’s arrival. Al picked up one of the pop-guns and asked if I knew what it was. It looked rather foreign to me, as I had grown up in a younger generation than Al, a generation that played with video games instead of home-made pop guns.

And as Al always does, he went into an explanation of what he was reminiscing about (i.e. the pop-gun), which is an interesting piece of Ascension Parish history as well as a link to very, very old River Road traditions. Here is how you make a pop-gun and use it:

1. Take a tall reed (the kind that grows in abundance here in the swamps of Louisiana) and cut a 6-inch section out. Remove the center section of the reed to make it hollow. The middle of the reed, which is always soft, can be removed rather easily.

2. Find a nice, thick cypress branch (about 2 inches in diameter). Whittle about 3/4’s of it down so that it will snugly fit into the hollowed portion of the reed. The other 1/4 of the cypress branch will be the handle (Al says you should whittle down so it’s nice and smooth). Once constructed, all you have to do is find some China balls (from an elderberry tree), stick n. Stick them in the hollowed out reed, jam the cypress dowel in the reed and POP! – the berry on the other end shoots out.

Sugarcane Crane

An sugarcane crane from the Houmas House plantation, circa 1900

“Man those suckers hurt!” laughed Al. The pop-gun story was followed shortly thereafter by another story from back in the day: Al and his friends used to pick pieces of cut sugarcane during harvest season, climb the cranes in the sugarcane fields that loaded the bales of cut cane onto trucks, and spend the evening hanging out 40 or 50 feet up in the air, chewing on freshly cut cane and “solving all the world’s problems.”

It’s amazing how such simple things were used for entertainment back then. But I can tell you one thing for sure: chewing on sugarcane and shooting pop-guns with your friends is a lot more enriching than sitting around playing video games all day. That simplistic lifestyle is something Al fondly cherishes, and something that I wish I had not missed out on growing up.

Full-length example of an old sugarcane crane (taken in Puerto Rico)

Full-length example of an old sugarcane crane (taken in Puerto Rico)

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