Danny Heitman AT RANDOM
A walk in the Bywater was just the medicine I needed
Last fall, I asked Pico Iyer, a travel writer and spiritual thinker I’ve followed for years, how he keeps a sense of hope in a troubled world.
Iyer touched on several points, but his parting comment is the one I remember most vividly
“During the worst days of the pandemic,” Iyer recalled, “I was asked to give a talk to a local hospice organization. At the end, the moderator asked me to offer some advice. I’m sure he was expecting something wise or sonorous or lofty All I could say was, ‘Take a walk If the world doesn’t look better after you do, you will almost certainly feel better.’
A few days later, Iyer’s words came back to me as my wife and I took a weekend walk in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans. Our friend, photographer Lori Waselchuk, was in town on business, and we’d agreed to meet her for lunch.
This was the weekend when pop singer Taylor Swift was in New Orleans, and I wasn’t sure I’d be up to navigating the traffic and crowds But we glided easily into the Bywater ending up on a stretch of Chartres Street that was pleasantly quiet. At nearly noon on a Sunday morning, New Orleans was still waking up.
It’s one of my favorite times in the city, when the day is slowly arriving, and the town is still rubbing sleep from its eyes Distracted as we took in the shops and houses winking to life, my wife and I overshot the restaurant. A family in the next block was stretching its legs — a man and his wife on bicycles with their children lined up behind like ducklings on tiny bikes of their own.
I asked them how far we’d walked past our lunch venue.
“I’m not sure,” the father of the brood said. “But isn’t this a nice place to get lost?”
We had to agree. The autumn morning was wonderful, the sunlight sweet and forgiving Meanwhile, another man approached and offered to consult his phone for directions, thinking they might be clearer than what I’d found online. He was Chuck Walker of South Carolina, and we had a good laugh about a tourist helping a Louisiana guy find a lunch spot Chuck, I soon learned, sings in Bedlam Hour, a punk rock band that was in New Orleans for a gig. Chuck’s shirt sported
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BY ROBIN MILLER Staff writer
John Folse keeps the Louisiana boucherie tradition alive with 375-pound hog to feed a crowd
BY JAN RISHER Staff writer
Boucheries start early in the morning.
Louisiana didn’t invent community events to prepare and preserve pigs
The history of those go back thousands of years, with roots in Europe. That said, boucheries, or hog killings, on cold winter days are a part of Louisiana tradition and Chef John Folse is doing his part to keep the tradition alive and show the next generation how it’s done.
The French word boucherie actually means butcher shop, but it is also the word for what was and continues to be a social event born of necessity — friends and neighbors helping each other do the hard work of slaughtering and preserving a pig.
On Feb. 22, about 75 butchers and chefs arrived by 6 a.m. for Folse’s annual boucherie at White Oak Estate, which started with a butchers’ breakfast. Folse welcomed chefs and butchers alike and invited everyone to get involved.
“Enjoy the day Put your hand wherever it wants to go,” the acclaimed Louisiana chef told those
Tripp Rion leads one of the 10 boucherie stations was called ‘Game Changer.’ At this station, they served a variety of smoked meats in various ways, including
gathered to be a part of the boucherie from start to finish. “If it’s something you see for the first time, jump in. Today is all about touching food.” Folse and his team, including Michaela York and Danling Gideon, have organized the annual events
since 2016, when they hosted a boucherie for the “A Taste of Louisiana” series on PBS — skipping 2021 and 2022 for the pandemic.
“As a kid, one of my fondest memories growing up was the boucherie — my grandfather, his brothers and sisters, their husbands and wives, my aunts and uncles and their children and a lot of cousins. It was like a festival. There were probably 50 or so cousins that were there,” Folse said. “And they would kill six pigs at a time.”
He explained that the pigs were killed on a Friday, cut in half and hung on the side of the old corn house.
“On Saturday, the women would take all the innards out,” he said
“And I can remember them sitting around the table, cleaning the intestines, scraping everything out, washing them out to make the casings for the sausage and the boudin. They would make the cracklings and hog head cheese and red boudin and white boudin Everybody would leave with a roast or steaks.” With the proliferation of
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refrigeration, ice chests and grocery stores, few people do boucheries anymore.
But this year, by 7 a.m., those gathered for Folse’s event were outside under the tent.
Bishop Michael Gerald Duca led the butchers’ prayer
“Be with us today on this celebration of life We thank you for the bounties of your great earth,” Duca said in prayer surrounded by butchers, chefs, students and those curious about the process. “We thank you for the feasts from your heavenly table. We thank you for yesterday and today We thank you for our fathers and mothers who taught us to be thankful and how to do the work with our hands.”
After the prayer and before the group dispersed to their stations Folse added a bit of housekeeping.
“We need eight people, please, strong and healthy, to help Mr. Felix carry the hog,” Folse said.
From there, Feliz Florez, from Red Field Ranch in Katy, Texas, led the march to the gallows for the slaughtering of a 375-pound hog. About 30 people followed Florez and stood in near silence as the hog was dispatched, which took longer than anticipated — taking seven shots.
Florez said the shots required exceeded any other hog he has dispatched except for a 700-pound one years ago. During this somber part of the day at White Oak, many had to walk away from the grisly reminder of the reality of putting meat on any table
Other pigs were already prepared, chilled and ready for the day However, the killing and subsequent butchering of a pig is an essential part of the boucherie experience
Six grown men worked together to load the hog onto a wooden 100-pound butcher block and carry it to a makeshift table setup where Florez worked for hours to butcher the pig alongside others, including his son, Ernesto, and Larry Folse, John Folse’s brother Larry Folse wasn’t the only Folse brother at the event.
In total, five “Folse boys,” as they referred to themselves — including Chef John Folse, Philip Folse, Jerry Folse, Carroll “Tootie” Folse and Larry Folse — took part in the day, including each of them speaking at a program about making hog head cheese that was one of a series of educational presentations that took place in the ballroom
“My dad was a trapper and spent a lot of his time in the woods Mom had eight children — and you can imagine what it was like with eight babies in the house and Daddy in the swamps,” John Folse said to those gathered in the ballroom. “Of course, we ate what we killed. It was never a question of what we were eating. Nobody ever asked what was in the pot. You know, it didn’t matter.”
Among those gathered to help with the day’s work were 12 students from the John Folse Culinary Institute at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux.
In the large tent, dozens of chefs and butchers manned various stations to prepare dishes to be served at the 1 p.m. Spoils of the Boucherie lunch. Stations and dishes included:
n Andouille, ponce and maudlin, led by Phil Wingo and Ryan McGrahan
n Italian sausage and smoked sausage, led by Paul Arrigo, Frank Arrigo and Vance Vaucresson
n White boudin and red boudin, led by Johnny Poche and Danny Gonzales
n Hog head cheese, led by Jared Tees and Nick Chevalier
n Backbone stew and white beans, led by Kernis “Lou” Louvier and Perry Trahan
n Raccoon and rooster stew, led by Chris Sherrill and Sam Jackson
n Rabbit and pork sauce piquante, with cracklins, led by Jerry Folse and Wesley Labat
n Pork and sausage fricassee, led by Travis Johnson and Ernesto Florez
n Sauce patate, led by Bill Broussard, Chad Porche and Roni Lee Porche
n Smoked meats, serving on-the-spot tacos and more, led by Tripp Rion.
As is tradition, nothing was wasted at the boucherie.
The intestines become casings for andouille, boudin and sausage The meat is cut into roasts, chops and ribs. Hams are cured in sugar brine and then smoked. The head and feet are simmered with lean trimmings and seasonings for hours. Then, the debris meat is cleaned, finely chopped and cooled until jelled to create hog head cheese. The skin is boiled down into cracklins and lard.
The event opened to the general public at 8 a.m. when people began to trickle in, including David Barnes, who drove down with a friend from Jackson.
They came simply for the experience and because they like food and cooking, barbecuing in particular Conversation among those milling about came easy because everyone there early on a Saturday morning had a clear, shared interest
“We went to an estate sale last weekend and bought some cast iron pots,” Barnes
said, as he watched the butchering demonstration. “I just heard about Griswold cast iron and was able to buy a Griswold Dutch oven and an Erie skillet.” From there, the conversation moved on to the temperamental nature of sourdough starter
Ten feet away, a group of friends and strangers gathered around a giant pot on a burner, huddling close for warmth, discussing the finer points of raccoon and rooster stew
“Oh, you’ll like it,” one man said, “I’d bet my house on that.”
York says the Folse team is already making plans for next year’s boucherie, set for Feb. 7, 2026, when they hope to add a Poverty Point in-ground oven demonstration to the mix.
Tickets for the event were $85 for adults and $15 for children. All tickets included the Spoils of the Boucherie lunch, lectures and cooking demonstrations as well as access to all boucherie cooking stations.
Email Jan Risher at jan.risher@ theadvocate.com.
such agood time at the2024 Show,thatheis returningin2025. Jimmyand his boatwill be at theshowMarch 28-30!
On Saturday and Sunday,the Wetland Watchers will be available to allowkids –and adults –to view and touchbabyalligators,snakes,and other reptilesfor aunique educational experience
TheLouisiana Sportsman Show features indoor andoutdoor exhibitsfromsome of thebiggest vendorsinthe state. This is also aplace where small and creative entrepreneurs connectwiththe cultureofLouisiana.The 2025 Show promisesto be better than ever with free parking,alarge kids’ activity zone and afood courtfeaturing some of thetop restaurantsfromthe RiverParishes.Bring
in New Orleans. The Mini-Dome officially opened its doors in 1975. LaVergne’s sculpture was installed and dedicated in 1976, and as Southern University Professor of Art Randell Henry remembers it, LaVergne was working in geometrical shapes at the time. “So, he chose geometrical shapes for the sculpture,” Henry said.
LaVergne called the piece, “Awakening,” explaining that it was a “representation of a facet of positive changes in America.”
The political climate may have reflected the title at the time with the Watergate scandal era ending with Jimmy Carter’s presidential win. Still, the idea of awakening represented more.
“He told me that it was like waking up in the morning,” Henry said. “The sculpture looks like a plant opening to the sun or an animal waking up and stretching It’s like a new awakening in the morning.”
Henry watched the work Henry was a senior at Scotlandville High School when he first met LaVergne, along with LaVergne’s fellow art professor Frank Hayden. The two sculptors taught and created work in the same classroom in the art building, now called Frank Hayden Hall. LaVergne worked on one side, while Hayden worked on the other
“I would ride my bicycle over to Southern and just sit and observe in the classroom,” Henry said. “It was called the Sculpture Lab.” LaVergne would later help Henry land a teaching job at Southern. The two worked together a year, be-
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Brave
of Attic Trash and Treasures, says they do not have a decision yet for pre-sale tickets, but interested people can follow along on their Facebook page at AtticTrashandTreasure for all updates. Terrell tells eager shoppers to get there early and wait in line for the best dibs. Attic Trash and Treasures paused accepting donations while they searched for the right space. Once Town and Country Furniture moves out of the location, Trash and Treasures will announce donation times. For now, circle the calendar for April 11, 12 and 13 and plan to shop that weekend. Those who would like to contribute money for the local nonprofits, mail checks to PO Box 84306, Baton Rouge, LA 70884. Email Joy Holden at joy holden@theadvocate.com.
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the Franken Berry character of the popular children’s cereal, which is how Chuck touts one of his band’s funny songs, “Frankenberry Mash.” As part of the performance, the band has sprinkled bits of the cereal into the audience.
Only in New Orleans, I thought, would I be enjoying a Sunday morning conversation about children’s cereal on a street corner with a punk rock singer These things sometimes happen when you go out for a walk. This year, I’m planning to take more of them.
Email Danny Heitman at danny@dannyheitman.
com
tween 1989 and 1990, after which LaVergne left Baton Rouge for a professorship at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.
LaVergne leaves legacy
Before leaving, LaVergne would leave his own artistic mark on Baton Rouge with his 1980 sculpture, “Les Musicians,” installed on the grounds of the Capitol Park Museum; and also with the 1987 installation, his bas relief, five-panel façade on the Louisiana State Archives building on Essen Lane.
LaVergne called the panels a “study in stone” of Louisiana’s history as a colony and state. Each panel measures 10 by 12 feet and weighs in excess of 12 tons.
The artist later said he liked working on big pieces, and one reason he accepted the job at Western Michigan University was its warehouse-sized studio space.
As for “Awakening,”
LaVergne sculpted it from fabricated steel He said in past interviews that he worked from found steel he collected along the way
His work often was improvised, meaning he didn’t plan or draw it out ahead of time. “Awakening” was one such piece.
“Southern commissioned the work for $15,000,” Henry said “He was working on it just as I was beginning college. He would normally
work on his sculptures in the art building, but he worked on this one in the livestock building next to the Mini-Dome.” The finished sculpture
is 17 feet tall and weighs 3 tons.
“Imagine trying to drive that from the art building to the Mini-Dome parking lot,” Henry said. “At the live-
stock building, all they had to do was pick it up with a crane and put it down in the parking lot.” The sculpture originally was painted black, but the
university later asked Henry to contact LaVergne about a change in color
Painted it yellow
“They wanted to paint it yellow,” Henry said. “I asked Al about it, and he said it was OK with him. He said the sculpture belonged to the school, so the school could do what they wanted.”
At the time, the school was painting the parking lines yellow in the lot.
“Maybe they wanted the
