Moving Forward Archive

At Thanksgiving, we celebrate the bounty of our harvest, and there is plenty to celebrate in St. Landry Parish. The cornucopia overflows here; we can fill our holiday tables with nothing but home-grown foods and eat like royalty.

William Darby visited what was known as the Opelousas District 200 years ago, and recognized then the prospects for our natural bounty.

He wrote that “few spots on the globe of equal extent exhibit more diversity … or a greater variety of soil and vegetable production than does [the Opelouss region]. Here are beheld all the changes of soil, from the deep fertile loam of Bayou Bouef to the sterile pine woods, from the broken hills of Bayou Crocodile … to the marsh plains of the gulph [sic ,,, and from the deep and almost impervious woods along the Atchafalaya, to the widely extended plains.  … Every plant and shrub cultivated in Louisiana [has] been introduced or attempted in [the region].”

Today the plants and animals that we’ve introduced, combined with those that were 

here a long time before us, make a list to marvel over—not to mention a table full of good eating.

We harvest grains from the prairies:  rice, corn, wheat, soybeans. Our  rivers and bayous and wetlands provide abundant seafood: crawfish, catfish, alligators, oysters, shrimp, turtles, crabs, and fish from sac-a-lait to snapper.

We have cattle, hogs, chickens, rabbits, sheep, and goats from the farm, squirrel and venison from the woods, ducks and geese and maybe frog legs from the wetlands.

Our gardens provide tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, beets, broccoli, cabbage, greens, eggplant, peas, beans of all sorts, mirliton, peppers ranging from hot to sweet, okra, onions, squash, turnips, and more.

For sweetness (and maybe some homemade wine) we grow fruits and berries: oranges, satsumas, peaches, pears, lemons, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, figs, mayhaws, muscadines, and others.

And we can’t forget sugar, syrup, honey, pecans —and the other ingredients that make dessert a perfect complement to a cup of hot black coffee.

Better yet, that natural bounty not only puts good food on our tables—at Thanksgiving and every day—but also puts money in our pockets.

Our cuisine is a huge ingredient in the cultural heritage that lures visitors to St. Landry Parish, and the basis of agricultural and food processing enterprises that let a growing segment of the nation and world enjoy what we grow and what we do with it.

In terms of acreage planted, St. Landry is one of the largest agricultural parishes in the state. County Agent Vincent Deshotel notes that at any given time there are about 250,000 acres in cultivation in the parish.

“Farming is big business here, and we have an impressive array of agri-business leaders and executives here in St. Landry,” according to Bill Rodier, director of St. Landry economic 

development. More importantly, he says, “farming, food, and heritage are segments of our parish economy that are ripe for growth, both internally and through outside investment.”

Those segments were identified as having high potential in an internal study of the parish several years ago and more recently in a study by Atlanta-based Garner Economics.

“Products from St. Landry Parish can be found around the world,” Rodier said. “We ship sauces and seasonings, sausage and boudin vegetable oil, and, of course, crawfish and farm products in big numbers.”

At the same time, the foods we grow and process here are one of the major attractions of a cultural tourism industry that is growing every year, according to St. Landry tourism director Celeste Gomez.

One of the major themes of parish tourism promotion is that “we live our culture”—and at Thanksgiving we live it well.