Visiting Farms in South Louisiana, Dec. 2011

Between Christmas and New Years, 2011, my friend Lesia and I were able to visit New Orleans for a few days. While we stayed and experienced the French Quarter during the evening, we exited the city limits during the days to seek the surrounding attractions. 

Below are some pics that I took along the way.

 On a visit to St. Rose Parish, we had lunch at the "Port Side" restaurant. It resided just a few feet from the Mississippi River dike and was a great "working man's" place to eat.  The owner visited with us about the history of this eatery while we dinned on gumbo and hush puppies. He even shared a collection of arrowheads that he had collected over the years. Interesting touch; in the corner of the dinning room were two slot machines.

 

We took a tour of the Destrahan Plantation, which was a great educational experience about early Louisiana history. Interesting to learn that the average height of a man in early 19th century New Orleans era was 5'3". Thus, the door knobs were really low. Above, Lesia poses at the foot of plantation store.

Always interested in seeing local agriculture, so we stopped by this "cabbage stand" and asked "...where's the farm?" FYI, this farmer donates sales from this cabbage stand to the local high school baseball team fund. How generous is that?

Nice size cauliflower growing here at this farm which rests adjacent to Mississippi River Farm. The owner says his farm soils come from the American mid-west as they developed over centuries via the ebb and flow of the Mississippi River.

 Rows or broccoli, onions, beets, cauliflower, cabbage, turnips and more.

 

More cauliflower needed, so "out of season" baseball players help out with the harvest.

 We caught a ride back on the farm wagon "full to the brim" with cauliflower.

 

This is a different day and different farm. Located near Ponchatoula Louisiana, this farm has about 45+ tillable acres under of production; 15 acres being in strawberries every year.  Above workers remove runners from strawberry plants. Kind of like "suckers" on a tomato plant, removing the runners helps in growing better fruit.

The white fabric, shown above, is "row cover" which is spread out over the plants when the danger of frost develops. While strawberries can take cold weather, frost can burn the blooms. As you may know the flower blooms are what eventually develop into the fruit.

Younger strawberry plants basking in the early day sun. In case you are wondering, the plants are grown on raised beds and covered with black plastic. The plastic keeps the root zones nice and warm as well as prevents weeds from growing which can compete for nutrients.

Owner Eric looking at another field of strawberry plants. Eric's farm grows about 225,000 strawberry plants each year.

The strawberry season for Eric ends each year around Memorial Day Weekend. The farm's focus then becomes Blueberries. Shown above are Blueberry plants remaining dormant until the days begin to get longer and little warmer. The white vertical pipes are sprinklers that assist in frost protection for those late spring frosts.  Eric also grows purple hull peas, tomatoes, squash and other summer vegetables. He can be found every Thursday at the Baton Rouge Farmers Market.