Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve
National Historical Park and Preserve has six sites that are scattered across
southern Louisiana
whose mission is to protect the natural and cultural resources
of Louisiana’s Mississippi River Delta Region.
Each is unique in its focus, and they all reflect a place
where traditions can be generations old
but the ground under your feet can change with the weather.
The park's sites share the story of a place
where change is the only constant, from the waterways
that shape the land in new patterns every day
to the never-ending balancing act
between old ways and new ideas.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy one of the many cultural stories
that helps to shape this unique environment.
- Hi, I'm Joel Savoy.
- Hey, I'm Jo Vidrine.
- Jo and I are Cajun musicians here in southwest Louisiana.
And we're both very passionate about the traditions
that have been handed down from generation to generation.
- We love food,
and we love learning about where our food comes from.
So today we're gonna dive
into one of Louisiana's largest food ways.
♪ Here go ♪
(Cajun music)
Call them what you want, crawdads, mud bugs, crayfish.
Crawfish are farmed and cooked in many cultures
around the world.
- [Joel] Here in Louisiana, crawfish season
is a special time of year.
Since the late 1970s,
crawfishing has become a huge industry.
Today, boiled crawfish can be found across the region
in restaurants and seafood markets for around $6 a pound.
But it wasn't always like this.
- I can remember selling crawfish for 15 cents a pound.
The crawfish industry just blew up in the mid '70s
all the way till about the early '80s.
The farming industry had went to in the tank.
The rice crops were worthless.
The soy bean crops, which we also plant around here,
were kinda worthless.
So everybody was looking for a way to make some extra cash,
and that's why everybody kind of jumped
in the crawfish industry.
It was a cash crop. It was a way to make extra money.
And that's how this place became what it is today.
My name is Anthony Arceneaux.
I'm presently the owner of Hawk's crawfish restaurant.
Back in the early '70s,
not much crawfish were being marketed at that time.
My dad decided to open up a little cafe-type scenario,
and we could sell some of our own product
to be able to get rid of some of it.
We are primarily a seasonal crawfish restaurant.
A normal crawfish harvesting season
is anywheres from December/January area
through around May/June area.
It's usually about five months.
The crawfish has a process that they go through.
It's a lifecycle.
They are harvestable and edible at that time.
Other parts of the year, they're in hibernation.
They do that underground in burrows.
They'll dig anywheres from three,
I've seen them as deep as eight feet.
They go down there and they stay down there
until in the fall.
And then they come out with their young looking for water,
and that's why the rice farmers re-flood their fields
in September/October area.
Those crawfish, when they come back out of the burrows,
they're looking for water for their young
to thrive and to grow and to mature.
So at that time of the year when they come back out,
thousands of little bitty tiny crawfish,
you know, small, small,
but it doesn't take long for them to get to market size.
Six to eight weeks, and you start seeing crawfish
on the market.
And then the process starts all over again.
They start harvesting crawfish
through January, February, March, April and May.
And that's why we call that crawfish season.
(Cajun music)
Wake up at 5:30 in the morning, start cutting bait.
As soon as it gets daylight, to the fields,
try to get everything done, all the traps ran,
everything taken care of by around 2:00,
deliver your crawfish to market.
After everything's said and done, all is well,
come back and start walking layers
to make sure you're not losing any water in the fields.
Depends on how dry it is,
you may have to start pumping water.
There's traps to be repaired.
You need to take bait out and try to thaw it out overnight
for the next morning
'cause you need to start all over again.
If you finish up by 10:00 at night, you're doing real good.
(laughs)
Most farmers, it's a way of life for them,
and once it's in your blood,
there's nothing like getting up by the daybreak
and looking out and see what you accomplished, your crop.
It has changed over the years quite a bit,
but I wouldn't change it.
I wouldn't change a thing.
That's my life.
(Cajun music)
- I love to boil.
I found something I like to do,
and I don't really like to cook now.
I'm not a big cooker, but I like to boil crawfish.
I'm Meg Arceneaux. I'm a third-generation crawfish boiler.
I've always boiled crawfish in my backyard,
but about six years ago,
I decided that I wanted to take it on the road
and like make a career out of it.
My dad helped me.
We talked it out, and Hawk's Boil Up was born.
We do a lot of backyard boils for people
out of parties and whatnot, but New Orleans is like...
People love us in New Orleans.
We go there probably five or 10 times a year,
and people say, "Don't tell my daddy, but mine are better."
When I ask people, when they ask me to do a boil for them,
I say, "Do y'all want to do it family style or containers?"
And I'm just praying they do it family style
because it's so much more exciting to do it that way.
There's something about taking a big pot of crawfish
and just dumping it along a table like that
and watching everybody gather around and just start eating
and then talking and eating.
And it's just like it's so cool, right?
It definitely, it is the party.
It's what you go for.
(upbeat Cajun music)
- As you can tell, crawfish in Louisiana is a lifestyle.
- Restaurants like Hawk's serve a lot of boiled crawfish
every season.
But you might be surprised how much is processed to be sold
as peeled tail meat.
- [Jo] Crawfish processing plants
can be found across south Louisiana.
Every day during the season,
peeling plants receive sacks of live crawfish
caught by local farmers.
The crawfish get boiled, cooled,
then are peeled and packaged for sale.
And during crawfish season,
they process as much as 3500 pounds of crawfish a day.
It takes eight pounds of whole boiled crawfish
to yield one pound of tail meat.
Workers are paid by the pound,
and a single worker can peel
between 25 and 60 pounds of tail meat in a shift.
- [Joel] From the plant, these crawfish tails
are sold to stores where they are bought and consumed
in many different ways.
One of our favorite dishes here on the prairie
is Crawfish Etouffee,
a delicacy of smothered crawfish served over rice.
(Cajun music)
Regardless of how they're being cooked,
a pot of crawfish always bring people together.
Mealtime is not only for sharing great food
but a time for families to share the traditions
of this unique American culture.
(singing in foreign language)
(Cajun music)