Louisiana Life Magazine March-April 2025 by Renaissance Publishing

SPRING FESTS: 12 DESTINATIONS TO EXPLORE

Peppercrusted strip steak, topped with oysters and a creamy brandy sauce

The natural beauty of St. Francisville’s rolling hills, bluffs and ridges, pristine historic homes, quaint boutiques and top-notch eateries is like a “Gilmore Girls” Stars Hollow fever-dream. For our three-day escape to the charming town, my husband Mark and I had hiking in nearby Tunica Hills and biking downtown on our agenda, but rainy weather changed our plans. You might say we didn’t get the trip we wanted, but we got the one we needed.

TUNE The bumping sound of Cimafunk

LOUISIANA MADE

Father-Daughter duo leads Noël Family Distillery in Donaldsonville

KITCHEN GOURMET Finding what’s fresh and letting it shine

p.42

Iowa p.43 4. Lafayette p.44 5. Natchitoches p.45

6. Ruston p. 46

7. Mansfield p.54

8. St. Francisville p.58

That Spring Fest Feeling

IT’S SPRING, which means spring festival time!

The weather’s not too cold, not too hot, flowers are bursting with color, and everyone is ready to get out and have some fun. I’m not sure whether I like spring or fall festival time better — they’re both unique and have their own vibe — but right now, conveniently, I’m leaning toward the spring.

With over 400 festivals, Louisiana is often referred to as the festival capital of America, according to Louisiana Destinations. The largest outdoor festival is the Red River Revel in North Louisiana. The French Quarter Festival is the largest free music event in the U.S. The Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival dates back to 1936. One of the quirkiest festivals is the Rougarou Fest in Houma. And there are always new festivals popping up, such as the Natchitoches Louisiana Bigfoot Festival, which saw 2024 as its inaugural fest.

Why do we have so many festivals? Well first and foremost, we love a party. It’s part of our culture. So is food and drink. And I guess if you put those things together, you’ve got yourself a festival. Just as soon as a new festival pops up, within a few years, it’s grown exponentially. If you make one, we will come.

In this issue, Cheré Coen explores a few of the many festivals Louisiana has to offer. When I read her list, I realize how many I’ve not been to! Because I live in New Orleans, I’ve got most of those covered—especially the Tennessee Williams and New Orleans Literary Festival. However, I’ve always wanted to go to the Peach Festival and Festival International de Louisiane. And the Amite Oyster Festival? Putting that one on my calendar for sure. I haven’t been to the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival since college and I’d love to see how it’s changed—I’m sure lots more people go and now it’s a three-day affair.

Whichever festivals are on your list this spring, get your backpack or fanny pack ready and pass a good time!

Reine Dugas EDITOR

REINE@LOUISIANALIFE.COM

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EDITORIAL

Editor Reine Dugas

Copy Editor Liz Clearman

Web Editor Kelly Massicot

Food Editor Liz Williams

Art Director Sarah E.G. Majeste

Lead Photographer Danley Romero

Food Photographer Eugenia Uhl

SALES

Sales Manager Rebecca Taylor 337-298-4424 / 337-235-7919 Ext. 7230

Rebecca@LouisianaLife.com

Renaissance Publishing

PRODUCTION

Digital Director Rosa Balaguer Arostegui

Senior Production Designer Ashley Pemberton

Production Designer Czarlyn Ria Trinidad

MARKETING

Marketing Manager Greer Stewart

Liz Williams

Food writer

Liz Williams founded the Southern Food & Beverage Museum and authored several books about food and culture, especially New Orleans food culture. Her podcast, Tip of the Tongue, about food, drink and culture, appears weekly. She is a graduate of LSU Law Center and has practiced law in Washington, DC and Louisiana. She has served as judge in many cooking competitions and consulted internationally on the food of New Orleans. Travel is an excuse to eat in new places.

What are you Reading?

Liz Williams

“Unpalatable: Stories of Pain and Pleasure in Southern Cookbooks” by Carrie Helms Tippen. This book makes me understand why people simply read cookbooks, gleaning historical messages without necessarily cooking from the books.

Eugenia Uhl

“The Safekeep” by Yael van der Wouden. The story is set in the Netherlands, about a confiscated home after the war and a relationship that develops when one woman tries to get her home back.

Jeremy Marshal

“Pay The Piper” by George A. Romero & Daniel Kraus. A Lovecraftian horror set among the water-logged shanties of a humble Cajun bayou community about returning dominion of the swamp land to the depths and the dead.

Eugenia Uhl is a photographer and a native New Orleanian. Her photographs have been featured in New Orleans Magazine, New Orleans Homes & Lifestyles, Southern Accents, Metropolitan Home, GQ Magazine, Essence, Travel & Leisure and Vegetarian Times. Her clients include Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group, International House Hotel, Volunteers of America, Galatoire’s and Tulane University. She has completed multiple cookbooks, including “Commander’s Kitchen” for Commander’s Palace and “New Orleans Home Cooking” by Dale Curry, Pelican Publishing.

Jeremy Marshall was born and raised in Baton Rouge before moving to New Orleans with his wife, Kristin, in 2018. Beginning his career in the Film/TV industry, Jeremy worked steadily on over a dozen projects before transitioning to Renaissance Publishing as their Sponsored Content Coordinator. When not working or writing, odds are you’ll find him at the movies with a large soda and a box of Junior Mints.

Cultural Tour Faces

TWFest Time!

Celebrating all things literary in New Orleans

BY LISA LEBLANC-BERRY

On Sunday, March 23, crowds gathering beneath the Pontalba balconies facing Jackson Square will repeatedly hear the heart-wrenching scream, “Stellllaaaaa!” during a shouting contest emulating Stanley Kowalski’s climactic, drunken scene from “A Streetcar Named Desire,” presented by the Tennessee Willilams and New Orleans Literary Festival, affectionately known as TWFest (March 26-30). Co-founded by writer, editor and Carnival historian, Errol Laborde, the annual festival has blossomed into a major international literary attraction since its debut in 1987, featuring over 100 events with acclaimed writers, scholars, actors, historians, musicians and chefs and over 10,000 attendees. There will be literary panels, a scholar’s conference, writer’s craft sessions, contests, theatre productions, walking tours, music and culinary events that herald the famed playwright’s French Quarter years and beyond. Widely celebrated for his fearless exploration of human vulnerability, Williams is also celebrated alongside the Saints and Sinners LGBTQ+ Literary Festival (March 28-30); (tennesseewilliams. net; browse through twfest.myshopify.com for merch).

EUNICE Of Master Classes and Barn Dances

The 22nd annual Dewey Balfa Cajun & Creole Heritage week (March 2428) is a Louisiana French immersion experience like no other, featuring a new array of multi-day music lessons with master musicians, chefs and artisans in a naturebased setting. Spontaneous music jams and lakeside campfires, dance lessons and nightly barn dances add to the allure. Bring your RV, pitch a tent, share a cabin or stay at a local B&B or hotel (cajuntravel.com/ events/balfa-week).

Got Crawfish?

After last year’s low crawfish yields and high prices, fans are celebrating the far superior 2025 crawfish season.

MARCH 20-23

Chalmette’s 50th annual Louisiana Crawfish Festival features top bands and crawfish bread, pastas, pies, étouffées and jambalaya (louisianacrawfishfestival.com).

MARCH 29

The World Championship Crawfish Etouffee CookOff brings Cajun bands and celebrity judges to Eunice (etouffeecookoff.org).

MARCH 29

More than 60 teams boil over 40,000 pounds of crawfish for cash prizes at the 23rd annual Louisiana Crawfish Boil Championships in Marrero (lacrawfishchampionship. eventbrite.com).

APRIL 26

The Original Downtown Lake Charles Crawfish Festival promotes the seafood industry with a crawfish parade, pageant, carnival and art show for Parkinson disease patients (www.visitlakecharles.org/ event/this-is-home-fest).

APRIL 28-30

The 10th annual NOLA Crawfish Festival, staged between both weekends of the New Orleans Jazz Festival (April 24-27 and May 1-4), provides live music, beer and hot boiled crawfish by Chris “Shaggy” Davis and his NOLA Crawfish King staff (facebook.com/ nolacrawfishfestival).

Generational Heritage Books

that explore history and families

BY CHRISTOPHER LOUIS ROMAGUERA

Daughters of the New Year

One Book One New Orleans, the nonprofit that focuses on literacy within the city of New Orleans, chose E.M. Tran’s “Daughters of the New Year” as their 2025 book. One Book One New Orleans helps provide books and literary resources everywhere from adult education programs to prison libraries. Tran wrote in a statement: “I owe a great debt to the people and institutions in my life who gave me books. The idea that my novel could be an imaginative entryway for someone else because it is the One Book One New Orleans 2025 pick is such an honor!” “Daughters of the New Year” is about generations of immigrant women within a Vietnamese immigrant community in New Orleans, as three of the youngest generation start seeing strange visions of long-buried secrets of their family. 320 pages, $27.99

Secret Louisiana: An Unusual Guide

“Secret Louisiana: An Unusual Guide” is Chris Champagne’s (a graduate of the University of New Orleans), follow-up to “Secret New Orleans.” In “Secret Louisiana,” Champagne shines a light on some of the most unique historical facts and contemporary realities of one of the most interesting states in the country. From drive-through funeral homes to fossils on the side of the highway that are millions of years old, Champagne is the consummate tour guide, who combines his writing abilities as a former slam poet along with his credentials as a historian and his lived experience in Louisiana. 336 pages, $19.95

NOLA Face: A Latina’s Life in the Big Easy

Champagne’s memoir-in-essays tackles a range of subjects, following her life as an Ecuadorian-American living in the city of New Orleans. Champagne’s writing is witty and keeps the readers invested, as she explores identity, pop culture, the city of New Orleans and her abuela Lala, among other things. Champagne writes about everything from driving her sister to a job interview at a strip club in the French Quarter, being carjacked by two gun wielding men in Baton Rouge, as well as more introspective pieces about her feelings on identity. 192 pages, $24.95

Indian Burial Ground

“Indian Bural Ground” follows Noemi Broussard, as she tries to embrace the reservation she has lived in her entire life. Those plans are changed when her boyfriend is killed by a car. Labeled as a paranormal fiction, with some gothic horror, Medina’s book expertly depicts the indigenous people on the reservation, pairing the supernatural with the realities of this unique setting. Medina also writes with the gravity of importance, such as when he writes, “I’d never known how much weight a word could hold until Luke uttered it,” when Noemi first hears about the crash. 384 pages, $28

A Whole Lotta Funk

The bumping sound of Cimafunk

BY JEREMY MARSHALL

A STAR ON THE RISE with a throwback style of funk uniquely his own, Grammy-nominated Cuban musician

Cimafunk took some time to speak about his artistic process, his journey as a working musician and the importance of valuing education not just for the next generation but for himself as well.

As a child, what piece of art sparked in you the need to create and perform? “My first experience performing was at church as a child and young teen. Those were specific songs that you were supposed to learn and perform, and there was a certain way of performing them, but it allowed me to express myself and sing and learn. In Cuba, most households are very musical, so there’s music all the time when people are hanging out and when people are eating dinner. There were always opportunities to sing and create with my family.”

You spent several years working with prominent Cuban musicians Raúl Paz and Liuba María Hevia. What did that time teach you about what it meant to become a working performer? “My early time working with other performers was important. I was really broke, and it helped me have a little bit of money in my pocket. But more than anything, it just gave me a look into the lifestyle of a musician, the business aspects, and the different ways that music is made and performed. It’s also where I connected with the live show and its importance, not just as enjoying it but also as a way to build a sustainable career because you can’t fake it.”

Your name references the Cimarróns — escaped slaves who formed self-sustaining communities in Cuba during the colonial era. Was taking on that moniker an inspiration to continue the Cimarróns’ revolutionary example through your music? “My approach is identity and history and culture and being Black and celebrating Blackness is just being the best version of yourself. So, on the one hand, when I found out that my family had a history of Cimarrón culture and that there were a lot of distant family members of mine who were Cimarrónes, that was something that I found interesting and I studied a lot. And it’s something that I’m passionate about and I’m proud of. On the other hand, it’s not something that I discuss on a daily basis. I certainly celebrate my hair, my skin and other aspects of my culture, but I do it in a way that makes me happy.”

How crucial is the live performance experience not just for yourself but for audiences to really embrace the whole that is your work? “The live show is where you can really set yourself apart from others as a performer. We’re all artists, we’re all creative but not everyone can get up and make the crowd move, particularly when they don’t understand the language or they might come from a different culture. It’s an honor to be able to do that. When I started to think about music, the people that really threw me in were great recording artists, but more than anything, they were great performers, like James Brown, George Clinton, Irakere, or Benny Moré. These are people who, with a microphone and a backing band, can work wonders. And that really inspired me.”

You recently taught a class in New Orleans on the musical bridge between New Orleans and Havana, Cuba. Do you see yourself as an educator as well? “I do a lot of work with kids in New Orleans and in Cuba and always learn a tremendous amount. A lot of times they’re sharing music with me. Not only do I give them feedback, I absorb from that, and I take new lessons. Recently, I sent one of my songs to some young kids in Cuba, so that they could make the arrangement, and then when I visit them, I can sing the song with them. When they sent me back the arrangement, it was different. I don’t want to say I like it better, but I like it just as much as what I had put together with my band. So we’re constantly learning and teaching, and that’s why I think we’re all educators.”

Cimafunk lights up the crowd with his energetic performance style and funky beats. This group always gets people moving.

Team

Father-daughter duo leads Noël Family Distillery in Donaldsonville

BY JEFFREY ROEDEL

PHOTOS BY ROMERO & ROMERO

BORDERED BY CRESCENT PARK’S half-moon slice of greenspace and the Mississippi River levee is an old power station building in downtown Donaldsonville. Now painted church white, the vast structure is home to a small-batch distillery operated by Chip Noel who stays busy meticulously making a variety of unique rums and vodkas under his family’s brand Noël Spirits inside the same cavernous space where he used to pay his electric bill.

For Noel, the 69-year-old former commercial pilot and prolific hobbyist, everything about rum making is methodical, measured and precise. Until it isn’t. Until intuition takes over.

“There are so many solids in the raw juice, I don’t get a perfectly accurate reading on my alcohol meter, but I just kinda know when it’s ready,” he says. “I’ve also done about 100 runs on this still, so that helps.”

Years of flying wealthy clients on charter flights to lush locales across the Caribbean inspired his love of quality cigars and well-made rum. A decade ago, he began experimenting and perfecting rum distilling at home, and after six years of development and planning, regulations and renovations and a variety of challenges, Noël Spirits rolled out its first beverages in spring of 2023. The brand now boasts a half-dozen bottled varieties as well as canned cocktails, a line of merchandise and regular events in the heart of Donaldsonville.

That Noel maintains a bonsai collection, cultivating the infamously delicate Japanese trees as a form of relaxation, says a lot about the care and ingenuity the master distiller now puts into his daily processes for Noël Spirits.

Q&A

With all of the Caribbean influences in New Orleans and South Louisiana, why isn’t rum a bigger deal in the region? Unlike bourbon in Kentucky or tequila in Mexico, Louisiana rum hasn’t had a unified voice or champion to push it to the forefront. I think if we as distillers and the tourism agencies could come together to advertise this, I believe the perception would improve. We have to advertise the lifestyle and make it our own. We have to change the perception of rum so people think of it as a sipping spirit, and associate it with a premium image.

If you could share a glass of Noël tequila or rum and a long conversation with anyone, who would you choose?

Of course, my dad’s mom and dad who passed away before we got the distillery open. They’d be so proud we followed our dream. But today, I’d choose Matt Saurage of Community Coffee, and enjoy a Tiger Rita or a neat pour of our agricole rum, and spark ideas for elevating Noël Spirits. He knows the business of retail, running a family business and everything in between.

While Noel is aging his rum, it was important to Natalie to offer quality, clean and flavorful tequilas in Louisiana.

From dozens of trips back and forth from local farms, sourcing and hauling the local sugarcane and U.S.-grown corn, to fermentation and distilling, to bottling and labeling each finished product, Noël Spirits is not only the definition of craft-made, but familyowned and operated, too.

Noel’s sister-in-law Karen Kliebert labels each bottle by hand, and his only business partner is his daughter, Natalie Noel, a tall, confident former ULL basketballer who serves as CEO and oversees marketing, sales and social media for the growing brand now distributed across the state by Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits.

As Natalie texts with her sales reps prepping for a holiday event at Calandro’s Supermarket in Baton Rouge later that night, Noel checks in on a batch of his rum aging in tequila barrels — something they’ve never tried before.

“Hopefully it accentuates some profiles like banana and pineapple and caramel flavors,” says Natalie, who earned her MBA from LSU and co-owns other businesses in the wellness space.

“The best part of the process is getting your people around the table, a bunch of friends, to taste it and give feedback and see what everyone likes. I was tastetesting some of our tequila last night, actually, you know, someone around here has to do the hard work.”

Noël is the only distillery in Louisiana with authentic reposado tequila, a proprietary blend using fresh agave from southern Mexico and the veteran tequila makers at 1438 Casa Maestri — its partner distillery in Jalisco, Mexico. After importing the tequila, Noel ages it in Louisiana oak barrels to finish it off. “Everything affects the flavor. Every tiny decision. Every amount of time,” he says.

Whether rum, vodka or tequila, Natalie’s goal for the growing brand is to land on cocktail menus of popular bars and restaurants where quality is key, and, in time, change the perception of rum as much more than a fruity vacation cocktail.

“I advocate often for the rum old-fashioned because it’s rustic, bold and has complex flavors” Natalie says. “Not every rum drink has to taste like a piña colada.”

As a team, their business is a lot of science, and a lot of relationships, too. Starting with their own.

“There’s so much talent in that man,” Natalie says of her father, who made his first home still out of a beer keg. “He can literally figure anything out. He has a passion for craftsmanship, attention to detail and resilience.”

And those characteristics are all visible right on the label: Noël Family Distillery. Chip Noel wouldn’t have it any other way.

Each bottle of rum is dated like a wine vintage, and hand-signed, just like a proud artist would mark his canvas.

“I thought if this is going to be successful, I’d like our name on it,” Noel says. “This is why I have bags under my eyes. I don’t sleep enough, because I care about this so much. When people see and taste the passion we put into each bottle, I know I want our name to be on it.”

The Theater of Art

Ruston Artist Nicole Duet and the Confluence of Art and Life

BY JOHN R. KEMP

“THOSE WHO CAN, DO; those who can’t, teach.” This snarky line from a 1905 play by George Bernard Shaw certainly doesn’t apply to artist Nicole Duet, an award-winning painter and long-time art professor at Louisiana Tech in Ruston, Louisiana.

Early in life, the New Orleans-born Duet dreamt of being an actor or perhaps a singer or writer. With that in mind, she studied theater at LSU and later at the University of New Orleans, where she had a part in Sam Shepard’s play “Fool for Love.” That was it. Duet was off to study acting at California State University Northridge. While there, she took an elective course in figure drawing. It changed her life. The moment came while sketching an older man.

“There was something poignant about the effort he took to step off the stand and grab a robe,” she says. “Looking back, I think it was a breakthrough in my own awareness, and the beginning of my love of drawing and painting. I realized that I could channel the very same love of exploring the dynamics of human nature that theater provided but through drawing and painting the figure.”

With her career now heading in a new direction, Duet earned a Master of Fine Arts in drawing and painting at Cal State Long Beach. After a brief time teaching art at colleges in the Los Angeles area, Duet headed back to Louisiana in 2011 to accept a faculty position at Louisiana Tech, where she now serves as chair of the studio art program and holds the impressive Louisiana Board of Regents’ Elva Leggett Smith Professorship in Liberal Arts.

On the art side of her parallel career, Duet’s paintings have appeared in juried exhibits from California to New York. She also has received numerous commissions and her work can be found in public and private collections in California and Louisiana.

Yet with all the career roads she has traveled, her early interest in theater is often evident in her paintings. Her softly focused and often faceless scenes resemble paused theatrical moments in a stage play or movie just before action resumes. As to style, she describes her approach to painting as “rooted in realism but also liberated from it.” Whether terms such as expressionistic, impressionistic, liberated realism or narrative figurative are used to describe her images, they are about stories, often everyday life stories. They draw viewers in, wanting to know more.

(Left) Windowsill (Above) Encounter with Rachel Ruysch

rary nature of things is, and while in some ways the painting is about loss or the expectation of loss, it's also about the fullness of life. Everything I've done since taking this position at Tech, my heritage as a New Orleanian is a core part of who I am as an artist. I want that aspect to be resonant and visible in the work but not the sole expression of the work. I believe in the voices of the South, in the richness of narrative in the South, and all their complexity, longing, beauty, tenderness and contradiction.”

How does Duet hope viewers respond to her work?

“There are ways that painting touches the internal life of a viewer through sensation,” she says. And those sensations, she continues, open “the emotion and intellect.”

“It relates to the way narratives unfold in literature,” she says. “I’m a reader, and literature continues to be a big influence. Someone once said to me that great novels unfold like great paintings and great paintings read like great novels, and that's a very formative idea for me. I want my work to have resonance the way poetry does.”

In her series “Ghost Cycles,” for example, Duet had just returned to Louisiana in 2011 and attended Mardi Gras in New Orleans for the first time in decades. While jostling among the crowds, she felt like a “tourist in my own hometown.” That experience triggered paintings that responded to how she felt “new and familiar” with the place she called home. It included dinner scenes with family and friends and shrines memorializing cyclists killed in accidents along New Orleans city streets.

A more recent shift in her work has produced what she describes as “smaller, more intimate and personal” and “less literal.” She says they are more reflective “metaphors” for what she observes. In this new work, she continues, the “composition is the story.” Her painting “Song of the Sea,” for instance, is about her aging father and her deep roots in New Orleans and the South.

“He is 89 now,” says Duet, “and the more we see signs of age the more poignant my awareness of the tempo -

She recalls her first visit to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles and how it affected her. Exiting the museum, she found “the trees, the color of the sky, the textures or appearance of everything around me was heightened.” Painting, she says, has helped her see people, places and experiences of day-to-day life “in a different way.”

Indeed, Duet shows us how to truly see moments as stories in our own lives. nicoleduet.net

Exhibits

CAJUN

Prairie Stories: Art and Ecological Restoration on Louisiana Prairies. Influence of Louisiana’s prairies in local visual culture, through May 10. Acadiana Center for the Arts, Lafayette. acadianacenterforthearts.org

CENTRAL

The River is the Road: Paintings by George Rodrigue. Rodrigue’s use of the river as a metaphor for his Cajun heritage, March 7 through June 21. Alexandria Museum of Art. themuseum.org

PLANTATION

In a New Light: American Impressionism 1870-1940. Survey of American Impressionism, through March 23. LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge. lsumoa.org

NOLA

Hoa Tay (Flower Hands). Features Southern artists of the Vietnamese diaspora. March 15 through Sept. 21. Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans. ogdenmuseum.org

NORTH

“Annual Juried Competition.” Showcases contemporary artists throughout the U.S., through May 3. Masur Museum of Art, Monroe. masurmuseum.org

(Top, Left) Crystal Balls (Top, Right) True North (Right) Pirate’s Alley

Local and Seasonal

Finding what’s fresh and letting it shine

BY LIZ WILLIAMS PHOTOS AND STYLING BY EUGENIA UHL

LOUISIANA IS BLESSED with so many wonderful foods that we will never run out of ideas for what to cook. Our list of local raw ingredients from both the land and the sea has spawned hundreds, if not thousands of cookbooks. We all have our favorites. And we all have the ones that we are requested to make for potlucks and shared meals. I am in awe of how many times I see the same recipe — say for shrimp Creole — and it is completely different from my own recipe as well as different from the last one that I read. We all put our spin on the food, yet we are all united by it. Everyone recognizes it as a Louisiana dish. These are some of my favorite dishes to make with all of the ingredients in the market and saved in my

This can be made with frozen blackberries that have been thawed. Using frozen fruit doesn’t seem to diminish the flavor of this cordial. This drink is so right in Louisiana. Whenever I drink it, I feel that it just grew from the ground of this state. Use it to make a blackberry Kir or lemonade by adding 1 or 2 tablespoons to a glass of champagne or white wine (Kir) or to a glass of lemonade for a spiked blackberry lemonade. Or, of course, drink it in a cordial glass.

Blackberry Cordial

1 quart blackberries or dewberries

1 pound sugar

1 pint brandy or bourbon

2, 3 or 4 cloves to taste

1. WASH the berries and remove any stems. Place the berries in a food processor and process. Strain the mixture through cheesecloth in a colander and collect the juices.

2. ADD the sugar and the cloves. Stir until the sugar dissolves in the juice. Allow to stand for 2 to 3 hours, depending on the degree of spiciness you desire, and remove and discard the cloves. Add the spirits, stir and place the mixture into bottles. Allow to cure for 1 month in a cool, dry place.

freezer right now. Fresh corn is always a delicious choice, but sometimes when I find it on sale, I cut it off the cob and freeze it for times when I do not want to use the commercially frozen corn or canned corn. I do the same thing with pecans when I find them on sale.

Louisiana’s eaters are open to new flavors, yet still cling to the old ones. It is that certain style and careful preparation that make it particularly Louisiana. The willingness to adapt our food to new flavors as new people move to the state — adding their special twists to our food —makes Louisiana special. This is what keeps our food vibrant and alive. We don’t live in the food past.

You can make a company meal of these menus. Nibbles of spiced pecans to pique the appetite, served with a Kir Royal or regular Kir of blackberry cordial. For an appetizer that looks great as well as tastes great, the stacked eggplant will surprise and please your guests. A main course of stuffed roasted chicken and a vegetable side of corn and bell peppers could be rounded out with crusty bread and butter. And a dessert of your own choosing is in order. It could be as simple as vanilla ice cream with more cordial and a demitasse finish.

My mouth is watering already. Have fork, will travel!

Eggplant and Tomato Stacks with Cheese Sauce

CHEESE SAUCE

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup milk

½ teaspoon hot sauce

½ cup sharp cheddar cheese

STACKS

1 egg

1 large Italian eggplant, peeled and cut into ½-inch slices

1 cup seasoned breadcrumbs

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

½ cup olive oil, more if necessary

3 or 4 large tomatoes, cut into ½-inch slices, at room temperature (Count the number of slices that you need after you have cut the eggplant. Don’t slice more than you need.)

1. FOR THE CHEESE SAUCE Melt the butter in a small saucepan and add flour. Cook to make a white roux, stirring for about 4 minutes. Stop if the roux begins to darken. Add the milk, whisking to incorporate the milk and flour. When warm and thick, add the hot sauce and grated cheese. Set aside.

2. MAKE THE STACKS Break the egg into a bowl large enough for dipping the eggplant slice. Add 2 tablespoons of water. Beat the egg and water with a fork. Dip each slice of eggplant into the egg wash. Place the breadcrumbs and the cheese in a bowl and mix together thoroughly. Then coat the eggplant with the breadcrumbs.

3. PLACE ¼ cup olive oil into a pan and heat until the oil begins to shimmer. Add enough eggplant to fit loosely in the pan. Cook until the slices become crisp on each side, about 4 to 6 minutes per side. Repeat until all of the eggplants are done. Remove from the pan and drain on paper towels.

4. DIVIDE the eggplant slices into 6 portions. Place tomato slices in between the eggplant slices. Place the stacks on serving plates. Pour cheese sauce over each stack.

Serves 6

Corn and Bell Pepper Sauté

This dish takes advantage of two major native products — corn and peppers — eaten long before Europeans moved to Louisiana. They taste wonderful together, and there are so many other combinations for this. The use of butter and cream in cooking came from the Europeans who settled in Louisiana. How exciting that our food is such a mash-up.

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon canola or other neutral oil

1 bunch scallions, sliced thinly, keeping the white parts and the green parts separate for garnish

6 ears of fresh corn, shucked and the kernels cut off the cob 2 large bell peppers, 1 red and 1 either yellow or orange, seeded and thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced ¼ cup half and half ¼ teaspoon hot sauce

1. MELT the butter in a pan. Add the oil. When the foam of the butter subsides, add the scallions and sauté until they begin to wilt, about 5 minutes. Add the corn kernels and bell peppers and continue to cook. This should be long enough to warm the corn and the bell peppers until the peppers just begin to become soft.

2. ADD the garlic and cook about 2 minutes more. Mix the cream and hot sauce. Add the cream mixture and toss well. Sprinkle with sliced green parts of the scallions and serve.

Serves 6 to 8

Recipes by Liz Williams

Photos and styling by Eugenia Uhl

QUICK PICKLES

Place 2 cups julienned carrots, 1 cup julienned daikon, 1 cup thinly sliced cucumber, 1 cup thinly sliced green cabbage, 2 teaspoons sugar, 1 teaspoon salt and ¼ cup apple cider vinegar into a bowl and stir well. All through the process of preparing the banh mi, stir again about every 5 minutes.

I ate a wonderful banh mi at a Vietnamese bakery in New Orleans that was made of pâté and fried oysters. I knew that I was in Louisiana, because where else could such a happy mash-up happen. It was delicious, but my favorite po’boy is made with soft-shell crabs. So to satisfy my own curiosity about the flavor, I developed this recipe. I am excited to share it with you.

LLouisiana food is naturally surf and turf. We often stuff our vegetables with seafood and sausage or ground meat. We top a steak with crab meat or crawfish. No one has to cajole us into the special flavors that form when you join things from the water with things from the land.

Since we start to have delicious seafood in the spring, it is time now to plan for special meals as well as everyday blends of surf and turf. When you are planning a special meal, a perfectly cooked steak with oysters is wonderful treat. But don’t limit yourself to beef when marrying seafood and meat. Look around for the seafood that is in season at the time you are cooking and marry it with the meat that you think will be most complementary.

When you are blending surf and turf, you have to decide which is the dominant flavor and which is the supporting flavor. I often use the turf as an accent when seafood is at its freshest. Then I let the surf take the lead. That means that I might add minced or ground ham to a stuffed shrimp or add chopped tasso to a crab cake.

Have you tried applying surf and turf techniques to sandwiches? A banh mi, a po’boy, or even a hamburger could be enhanced by melding surf and turf. And even a taco — made with meat and seafood — will pop in your mouth. After all, this is Louisiana. We have always been influenced by the food of the people who live here. We shouldn’t shy away from the goodness of the flavors that Louisiana offers.

And speaking of interesting flavors, we already have some wonderful ways to eat surf and turf at restaurants and festivals. The Louisiana pizza or a hand pie, crawfish bread with chopped andouille or even a savory bread pudding enhanced with your leftover surf and turf. If what you are looking for isn’t in season, go ahead and use frozen seafood. It isn’t ideal, but if you defrost and drain the seafood before you use it, you can substitute it for fresh seafood. Applying your own imagination and your own taste to this blending will make your dinner table shine.

You can make your own tortillas for these tacos, but if not, buy the best and freshest that you can find.

Heat 2 tablespoons neutral oil in a skillet. When it shimmers, add 1 pound chorizo, chopped into bite-sized pieces

Toss in the pan and cook and let the fat render. Cook for 5 minutes.

Add 1 pound peeled shrimp. Stir for another 3 minutes or until the shrimp are pink. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon ground chili powder and toss again.

TOPPINGS

Assemble the tacos by taking a tortilla and creating a base of cabbage and add avocados, tomatoes, mango, scallions and radishes Top with crema Squeeze a bit of lime juice.

Add chorizo, shrimp and toppings. Fold the tortilla and eat. Don’t overstuff it. It is better to simply eat a second one. Makes 6 tacos

CRAB MEAT AND PÂTÉ BANH MI

6 banh mi rolls

6 tablespoons mayonnaise

6 tablespoons softened butter

3 boiled garlic cloves, mashed Zest of 1 lime

12 ounces of your favorite pate or foie gras, divided into six 2-ounce portions

6 soft-shell crabs, cleaned

2 cups of your favorite fish fry

½ cup olive oil

1 cup fresh cilantro leaves

1. Cut the banh mi rolls in half lengthwise. Set aside.

2. Mix the mayonnaise, butter, garlic and lime zest in a bowl until well incorporated. Use the mixture to coat both inside surfaces of the banh mi rolls. Then use about 2 ounces of the pâté for each banh mi, spreading it on the bottom side of each roll. Set aside.

3. Dredge each crab in the fish fry. Pour the oil in a skillet. Fry the crab in the hot oil for 10 minutes, 5 minutes on each side. Place one crab on each banh mi roll. Top with some of the quick pickle and a generous sprinkling of cilantro leaves. Makes 6 banh mi

STEAK SALAD WITH CRAB

½ pound lump crab meat

1 cup baby arugula

1 cup baby spinach

½ cup fresh flat-leafed parsley leaves

1 small fennel bulb, thinly sliced

6 ounce cooked boneless steak, thinly sliced

4 ounces Gorgonzola, chopped

1. Go through the crab meat and remove any pieces of shell. Add 3 tablespoons of the dressing and toss the crabmeat and set aside.

2. Place the arugula, spinach, parsley leaves and sliced fennel in a salad bowl. Add half of the remaining dressing. Toss the salad and set to the side.

3. In a separate bowl, use the rest of the dressing and toss the steak. Add the steak to the salad greens and toss again. Right before serving add the Gorgonzola and toss again. Top with the crab meat and serve. Serves 3 or 4

THE DRESSING

Combine ½ cup olive oil, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, ¼ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper in a jar, cover and shake well. Set aside for the flavors to meld.

With a sharp knife cut a slit in the edge of six 1-inch thick boneless pork chops. Keep cutting until the cut is ¾ of the way across the pork chop and it forms a pocket. Set aside in the refrigerator.

In a skillet, melt 3 tablespoons butter and when the foaming subsides, add 3 scallions, finely chopped and 1 clove garlic, minced. Cook for 5 minutes. Remove the scallions and place them in a bowl. Add 1 pound peeled crawfish tails, 1½ cup cornbread breadcrumbs and lemon zest . Mix the stuffing so that it is a uniform mixture.

Remove the pork chops from the refrigerator and stuff the breadcrumb mixture into the pockets of each pork chop. Use a toothpick to keep the pocket closed. Coat the pork chop with the masa mixture. Knock off any excess masa.

Mix 1½ cup masa, 1 teaspoon salt , 1 teaspoon ground black pepper and 1 tablespoon salt-free Louisiana seasoning in a wide bowl. Set aside on the counter.

Add ½ cup olive oil to the same skillet and allow it to warm. Cook the pork chops in the skillet until they are browned on one side. Flip the pork chop over and continue browning. Each side will take approximately 6 minutes to cook. Remove the pork chops to a platter, remove the toothpicks, garnish with parsley and serve. Serves 6

Place 1 pound shrimp, peeled, boiled and chopped finely, 1/3 cup mayonnaise, 1 teaspoon smoked paprika, ¼ finely chopped fresh cabbage and orange zest in a bowl and mix.

Set 6 thin slices of Virginia ham out on a platter. Divide the shrimp mixture and spread on each ham slice.

Roll up the ham slice jelly rollstyle. Place each in a toasted and buttered hot dog bun Serves 6

This is a great way to use leftovers. It uses up ham that might be left over from a big family or company meal and extra shrimp. It is akin to a lobster roll, using Southern ingredients. It’s great picnic food, so serve it with potato salad and sliced tomato salad.

OYSTER STEW WITH STEAK

1 quart fresh oysters with liquor

1 quart milk

1 quart half and half 2 cups unsalted beef stock

1 bay leaf

2 tablespoons absinthe or Herbsaint

6 ounces cooked boneless steak, sliced very thinly and cut into bite-sized pieces Lemon for zesting

1. Place the oysters, their liquor, the milk, half and half and bay leaf in a soup pot. Stir and bring to a simmer. Depending on how much oyster liquor you have added, add the beef stock to bring soup to the right consistency.

2. Add the bay leaf and the absinthe. When the soup is warm enough to make the edges of the oysters curl, it is ready to serve; ladle it into bowls. Add 2 to 4 pieces of steak to the bowl. Grate lemon zest over each bowl. Serve. Serves 6 to 8

STICKY SHRIMP & PORK STIR FRY

1 pound boneless pork

1 teaspoon soy sauce

¼ cup vegetable oil

1 pound peeled shrimp

3 tablespoons white sesame seeds

3 tablespoons dry roasted peanuts, chopped

1. Cut the pork into pieces about 1 inch by 2 inches. Sprinkle the pork with soy sauce and toss.

SAUCE

Mix ¼ cup soy sauce, 1 teaspoon sugar, 2 tablespoons honey, 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce, 1 teaspoon oil, 2 tablespoons white wine and 1 teaspoon five spice powder together and cook for 3 to 5 minutes.

PEPPERCORNS

If you cannot find pickled peppercorns locally, they are available online. But you can substitute Szechuan pink peppercorns or mixed peppercorns, which might be easier to find on the spice aisle.

2. Add the oil to a wok or a deep skillet. Add the pork and brown for at least 6 minutes. Add the sauce to the wok. Continue to cook stirring regularly to keep it from burning. When the pork pieces are fully cooked and the glaze is sticking to the pork, add the shrimp and stir for 2-3 minutes until the shrimp is just pink.

3. Serve over steamed rice with steamed vegetables like baby bok choy and carrots. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and peanuts.

This is a recipe for 1 steak, because you shouldn’t deprive yourself, even if you are alone. But you can simply increase the recipe for any number of people. You can use any cut of boneless steak, but I believe that strip steak holds its own against the sauce.

Place a 6-ounce strip steak on a wire cooling rack. Salt both sides and place in the refrigerator to drain and dry, about 45 minutes.

Chop 2 tablespoons pickled green peppercorns (drained) Use half of the peppercorns to cover one side of the steak. Reserve the rest for the sauce.

Heat 3 tablespoons butter in a skillet. When sizzling, place the steak, first pepper side down, into the pan. Cook for 2 minutes. Add 2 sprigs fresh thyme to the butter in the pan. Then using a pair of tongs, flip the meat over being careful not to dislodge the pepper. Cook on the unpeppered side until done. While cooking, baste the steak with melted butter. Rest the steak, pepper side up, while you make the sauce.

Add remaining peppercorns, ½ minced shallot and 1 clove minced garlic to the pan. Stir. When the shallots are wilted, add brandy. Cook off the alcohol, about 4 minutes. Add 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard and ¼ cup heavy cream Stir and reduce sauce, about 5 minutes.

5 Add 5-6 raw oysters and cook long enough to warm them. Immediately add the steak, pepper side up. Reheat for 1 minute, basting with the sauce.

To serve, place the steak pepper side up and place the oysters on top of the steak. Don’t worry if some oysters fall to the plate. Top with sauce. Add lemon zest over the oysters and serve immediately.

SPRING

RING

BY CHERÉ COEN

It’s hard to believe that Louisiana hosts more than 400 festivals and fairs each year.

But what else would you expect from a state that celebrates every aspect of life, from crop harvests to music to literary greats? Here are a few time-honored spring events to put on your calendar.

FESTS

March 26-30

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS & NEW OR LEANS LITERARY FESTIVAL

NEW ORLEANS // TENNESSEEWILLIAMS.NET

When a young Tennessee Williams arrived in New Orleans, the Mississippi native wrote that he had found his special place.

“In New Orleans … I found the kind of freedom I had always needed, and the shock of it — against the Puritanism of my nature — has given me a subject, a theme, which I have never ceased exploiting.”

To honor the famed playwright, embrace the city’s literary heritage and encourage other young writers to hone their craft is the annual Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival. Like Festival International, the festival began in 1987 and in 2025 celebrates 39 years of bringing award-winning writers, historians and scholars, cultural experts, musicians and actors from Williams’ adaptations or who will perform during the festival’s five days in New Orleans.

Lovers of Williams and literature in general will revel in the wide lineup of authors, including Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham, Gillian Flynn, Megan Abbott, Alafair Burke, Margot Douaihy, Laura Lippman, Bernice McFadden and Kalamu ya Salaam. NPR book critic Maureen Corrigan makes an appearance, and special events include Poppy Tooker’s Drag Queen Brunch, a culinary experience with Chef Eric Cook, Books and Beignets featuring Anne Rice’s “Interview with the Vampire” and the Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans’ production of “Orpheus Descending.” There will be music, culinary and cocktail events, theatre performances and much more.

DON’T MISS

And then there’s the annual Stella Shouting Contest that kicks off the festival, where contestants portray Stanley Kowalski yelling up to his wife Stella in the play, “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Most people remember the iconic scene performed by Marlon Brando in the film adaptation.

One of the highlights of the festival is the literary walking tour of the French Quarter, pausing at sites where Williams lived, worked and played, including the house at 632

St. Peter St. where Williams completed his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

TIPS

Parking on French Quarter streets is always tricky, so use a parking lot.

Vicki Nesting, retired librarian of the St. Charles Parish Library, calls TWFest “a book lover’s heaven” and particularly enjoyed meeting like-minded literary enthusiasts.

“I loved having the opportunity to meet and talk with authors in such a small, convivial setting,” Nesting said. “The TWNOLF drew literary fans from across the country. I remember meeting a teacher from the West Coast who came every year. We became friends and corresponded.”

The organization also hosts the annual Saints & Sinners LGBTQ+ Literary Festival the same weekend as TWFest and now includes The Last Bohemia as part of its theatre programming.

MARCH 20-22

This hopping-good-time festival began in 1986 to promote a rabbit processing plant and a variety of rabbit breeders

(Above) Stella Shouting Contest (Right) Los Isleños Fiesta

March 15-16

Isleños Fiesta

CHALMETTE LOSISLENOS.ORG

After the French lost the French and Indian War in the mid-1700s, the Louisiana colony west of the Mississippi River and the “Isle of Orleans,” or New Orleans, was ceded to Spain while the former French territory east of the river was acquired by Great Britain. The Spanish government worried that the British might take over Louisiana so recruited thousands of Canary Islanders off the African coast between 1777 and 1782.

Known as Isleños, these colonists settled along Bayou Terre-auxBoeufs in St. Bernard Parish and in Ascension Parish where they later moved into what is now known as Spanish Town of Baton Rouge.

New Orleans-area Isleños descendants promote their history and heritage at the El Museo de Los Isleños, or the Los Isleños Museum on Bayou Road in St. Bernard. And every year the Los Isleños Heritage and Cultural Society celebrates the Isleños’ unique culture and heritage with an annual festival that dates back three decades. The Fiesta de Los Isleños includes dancing, food, art traditions and more.

DON’T MISS

The museum complex is situated on 22 acres and includes nine historic buildings to tour, plus a Houma Native American interpretive area, homage to the Filipino settlement of Saint Maló and a nature trail.

TIPS

Parking isn’t permitted on museum grounds but visitors may take the shuttle to the Fiesta from the parking lot at the Gauthier Elementary School on the Judge Perez Extension.

MARCH 14-16

AMITE OYSTER FESTIVAL

AMITE

AMITEOYSTERFESTIVAL.COM

Folks in Amite City of Tangipahoa Parish have been having a shuckin’ good time since 1976, when residents first celebrated the town’s oyster fishermen, oyster processing plants and, naturally, all those wonderful oysters and associated dishes at the Tangipahoa Parish Fair Grounds.

The Amite Oyster Festival, now held in downtown Amite, culminates the third weekend in March and includes live music, carnival rides, family activities, pageantry and plenty of oysters. We say culminates because there are several activities associated with oysters held throughout March, such as the Oyster Gala on March 1 and the Oyster Brunch and Fashion Show on March 8.

in Iowa, a small town located off Interstate 10 in Calcasieu Parish. It wasn’t a harebrained idea. Like many fêtes in Louisiana, it’s grown over the years and now attracts about 20,000 visitors over the festival weekend. In addition to live music, carnival rides, pageants

and, naturally, a wide variety of rabbit culinary offerings, the festival raises funds for civic, fraternal and school organizations, including college scholarships for high school seniors. Iowa, Louisiana, by the way, is pronounced I-O-Way.

Don’t miss: The Iowa Rabbit Festival Rabbit Cook-Off on Saturday, where chefs vie for awards and demonstrate their techniques, allows visitors to sample the different variations of rabbit dishes.

Tips: Thursday is free admission.

The goals of the modern festival are not only to honor and raise awareness about the Louisiana oyster industry but to promote coastal preservation as well.

DON’T MISS: Learn about the Sicilians who settled the area at the turn of the 20th century.

TIPS: Local restaurants will have food booths serving up their specialties.

APRIL 4-6

BOOKS ALONG THE TECHE LITERARY FESTIVAL

NEW IBERIA BOOKSALONGTHETECHELITERARYFESTIVAL.COM

This New Iberia literary festival may be the baby of the bunch, started only nine years ago as a way to promote local and national authors, educate those who wish to become writers and as an excuse to showcase the many places famed mystery author James Lee Burke frequented in his days in New Iberia. But there’s so much more.

The ninth annual festival will include a Cajun fais do do, a “Symphony in the Park, children’s activities, book fair, jazz opening reception and the Great Southern Writer Symposium and Book Signing with Mary Kay Andrews at the Sliman Theatre. Andrews is the New York Times bestselling author with more than 30 novels published. This author will be discussing travel writing on Friday.

DON’T MISS: Dave’s Haunts and Jaunts

Mystery Bus Tour will take visitors places made famous by Dave Robicheaux and Clete Purcel, characters in Burke’s many novels.

TIPS: Since you’re in the area, now may be one of those times to visit nearby Avery Island and the Tabasco factory.

(Right) Jourdan Thibodeaux et Les Rôdailleurs at 2024 Festival International de Louisiane

April 23-27

FESTIVA L INTERNATIONAL DEE LOUISIANE

LAFAYETTE // FESTIVALINTERNATIONAL.ORG

The idea for an international event welcoming bands and artists from around the world birthed the inaugural Festival International de Louisiane in 1987. The popular festival has grown exponentially since then — around 300,000 last year — and has become the largest international music festival in the country.

Best of all, it’s free.

The five-day Festival International celebrates its 39th year this April and in addition to international musical acts on several stages throughout downtown Lafayette, the festival assembles both local artists at Parc San Souci and international vendors at the world market. There are food vendors serving everything from crawfish to alligator, a 5K race, daily parades, French stilt walkers and more. On Saturday and Sunday, Scène des Jeunes (Children’s Stage) features an array of children’s activities in addition to performers at the Cathedral-Carmel School campus.

“The Festival’s great because it’s free and there are bands from everywhere in the world,” said Lafayette attorney Lisa Hanchey, a Festival regular. “You will hear bands and music that you’ve never heard in your entire life. Plus, there is amazing food from Cajun country and beyond. And the booths are placed all over so you don’t even have to walk very far if you don’t want to.”

This year’s “Official Visual Artist” is Patrick Henry, a Jamaican native now living and working in New Orleans. His original artwork will be on sale at the festival, including his 2025 poster and pins of which sales help support the festival.

Viewing areas at Festival stages and restrooms are handicapped accessible. Dogs, ice chests and tents are not allowed but lawn chairs, blankets and wagons are.

DON’T MISS

The French stilt walkers are the highlight of the daily parades.

TIPS

If you can arrange to visit on the first three days, you’ll avoid crowds and be more likely to enjoy the Festival with locals who greet each other with “Happy Festival!” Daytime is best for families while nighttime performances tend to be large acts who attract crowds, many of which may get rowdy.

APRIL 11-13

The Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival began in 1972 to honor the region’s strawberry farmers and has grown since then to become Louisiana’s largest free harvest festival. The festival is held during the apex of strawberry harvest, which means visitors

may enjoy their fill of the sweet fruit, whether in culinary offerings or flats to bring home. The annual event now in its 53rd year features live music, carnival rides, food contests, a parade and more starting on the second block of North Sixth Street and throughout

Ponchatoula Memorial Park. Forty booths will be operated by local nonprofit organizations.

Don’t miss: Skip the crowds and visit Ponchatoula on March 22 for the Julian Dufreche Strawberry Day in the Park. There will be a wing cook-off, car show, strawberry auction, dessert bake-off and car show.

Tips: Only clear backpacks — except for diaper bags — are allowed and visitors are subject to searches to keep the festival safe.

There’s nothing like a spring day among Cane River just outside the quaint town of Natchitoches. Add a historic plantation with a unique artistic and racial history, plus a variety of talented artists and artisans and it’s the perfect outing.

The Annual Melrose Arts & Crafts Festival at Melrose Plantation off Louisiana Scenic Highway 484, hits 51 years in 2025, and the wide variety of arts and crafts vendors beneath ancient live oak trees is enough reason to visit. But there’s the National Historic Landmark home that dates to Marie Therese Coincoin, a free person of color in the early years of the Natchitoches Poste. The plantation changed hands over the years but one of its most famous residents was Clementine Hunter, who became famous for her folk paintings reflecting rural Louisiana life.

DON’T MISS

One of the home’s historic outbuildings is the historically unique African House, where Hunter worked. Upstairs visitors will find Hunter’s magnificent murals. Hunter’s home has been renovated and is now open for tours.

TIPS

Nearby is the Cane River Creole National Historical Park, which offers several properties to tour, including Oakland Plantation with its numerous outbuildings and massive pecan and oak trees, the Gothic Revival-style Church of St. Anne and the Magnolia Plantation complex.

Baskets of perfect, juicy Ruston peaches plus dishes with peaches prepared every way imaginable.

LOUISIANA PEACH FESTIVA L

RUSTON // LAPEACHFEST.COM

Louisiana celebrates its homegrown products with festivals and fairs — and has been doing so for almost a century. The Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival dates to 1936, the oldest chartered harvest festival in Louisiana. Coming in at second place is the International Rice Festival in Crowley, which turns 88 this year.

Another long-standing event that pay homage to a sweet North Louisiana fruit is the Louisiana Peach Festival in Ruston, which began in 1951 as a way for area peach farmers to promote their industry. And it’s a tasty one. Louisiana produces millions of pounds of peaches each year that are a vital part of Ruston economy.

This year, Ruston celebrates its honored peaches with the 75th anniversary of the Louisiana Peach Festival.

The event has evolved since its inception and recently moved from a two-day carnival-style festival to a one-day fête after the Ruston Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau, the city of Ruston and Downtown Ruston took over its organization in 2021. The goals were to focus more on local artists and musicians and to make the festival free within five years.

“We scaled it back so we can build it back,” said Tori Davis, director of marketing and communications for Experience Ruston. “It’s a way to give back to the community and showcase our artists and talent.”

The first year of the one-day event saw 16,000 visitors. Last year, that number rose to 27,000. And now that festival organizers have built up a nest egg, this year’s diamond anniversary festival will be free, Davis said.

DON’T MISS

The festival serves up delish peach ice cream!

TIPS

For those who want to see peaches growing on the tree, Mitcham Farms, the largest of the peach producers in the area, offers tours.

Although the event is one day on June 7, the week leading up to the festival includes a Peach Culinary Crawl where restaurants serve peach-inspired dishes, cooking and baby photo contests, a 5K and a Peach Hunt, where organizers release clues and participants search through the town to win prizes.

“It’s a local thing that’s fun,” Davis said of the scavenger hunt. “Gets a little wild.”

Festival day includes 12 hours of live music on the downtown Railroad Park Stage, a parade, arts and crafts and, of course, lots of those delicious sweet peaches and peach dishes. Interactive performers and games will be offered at the free Kids Alley throughout the day.

2-4

In 1959, the Louisiana Legislature named Breaux Bridge the Crawfish Capital of the World so naturally a festival was in order, especially since that year’s Breaux Bridge Centennial Celebration attracted thousands. In other words, if crawfish is on the menu, it’s a

May 24-26

Mudbug Madness Festival

SHREVEPORT MUDBUGMADNESS.COM

It all began in the mid-’80s as a two-day festival over Memorial Day Weekend in downtown Shreveport. Last year, the Mudbug Madness Festival celebrated its 40th birthday and is now one of Louisiana’s largest festivals offering Cajun, zydeco, blues and jazz artists on two stages at Festival Plaza downtown. There’s also plenty of Louisiana cuisine being served, arts and crafts to purchase, activities for kids in the Kids on the Bayou Children’s Area and more.

Naturally, since it’s a “mudbug” festival, there’s plenty of boiled crawfish to enjoy, plus a crawfish eating contest. The popular fête has been named as one of the Southeast Tourism Society’s Top 20 Events and the American Bus Association’s Top 100 Events in the nation.

DON’T MISS

The festival features special events such as a celebrity crawfish eating contest and discounts on the first day.

TIP

Even though there are more than 10,000 hotel rooms to choose from in Shreveport-Bossier City, from casinos to boutique hotels and bed and breakfasts, accommodations may be hard to find during the Memorial Day weekend so grab your hotel rooms early.

MAY 22-25

GONZALES

JAMBALAYA FESTIVAL

GONZALES

JAMBALAYAFESTIVAL.NET

Nothing like the power of word of mouth.

In 1968, Louisiana Gov. John J. McKeithen proclaimed Gonzales as the “Jambalaya Capital of the World,” due to the preponderance of jambalaya cooks in the Ascension Parish city. A few days later the first Jambalaya Festival was held with 13 cooks participating in the cook-off, hoping to be named the “World Jambalaya Cooking Champion.”

Word got out and the public responded. By 1971, the festival attracted nearly 50,000 visitors! And it wasn’t just about jambalaya. The early festival included a horse race and the Jambalaya Art Show with more than 500 participants. The following year the festival introduced the “Mini Pot” jambalaya cooking contest which would result in the crowning of the "World’s Smallest Jambalaya Pot.”

given that Louisiana will respond.

Today, thousands still flock to Breaux Bridge to sample our state’s official crustacean, plus listen to numerous Cajun and zydeco bands on three stages, take Cajun and zydeco dance lessons, watch crawfish compete in a race (yes,

it’s a thing) and witness participants receive bragging rights on who can eat crawfish the fastest. There are cook-offs, too! Since attendance has soared since those early days, the festival now takes place over three days at Parc Hardy.

Don’t Miss: The parade with floats, marching bands and the Crawfish Queen rolls down Bridge Street to Rees Street to Parc Hardy.

Tips: Only clear bags are allowed inside festival grounds.

DON’T MISS: Visitors may watch the cooks in action, then sample the jambalaya dishes.

TIPS: Ascension Parish is known as Louisiana’s Sweet Spot due to its sugarcane production. Taste the sweetness at Sugarfield Spirits in Gonzales, a distillery that incorporates cane, sugar and molasses sourced from Assumption Parish.

Tangipahoa Parish

A cozy hometown spot at the crossroads of Louisiana, Tangipahoa Parish lies smack between Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and Slidell and offers a whole world of attractions and local charm. Home to year-round festivals and the wilds of the Global Wildlife Center, Tangipahoa Parish has been delighting families for generations and invites you to join in the fun. So come by for a pour at Gnarly Barley Brewery, or visit the Hammond Historic District because there’s always something new and exciting to discover in Tangipahoa Parish. Discover it for yourself at these amazing events this Spring: Ponchatoula’s Antique Trade Days – March 7-9, Indepen-

dence Sicilian Heritage Festival – March 7-9, Amite Oyster Festival is April 14-16, Hammond BBQ Challenge – March 28-29, Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival – April 11-13, and The Italian Festival – April 25-27. To learn more, and plan your trip, please visit tangitorism.com.

Lafayette CVC

Lafayette is at the heart of Louisiana’s Cajun & Creole Country, an area known as the Happiest City in America, and it’s no mystery why. It’s distinctive blend of food, music, and culture has people from all over heading down to Acadiana for festivals,

outdoor adventures, and all-around good times for all.

Spring and Summertime are prime times to start your Lafayette adventure. Take the family through the fresh, blooming azaleas and lush greenery down the famed Azalea Trail. Or if it’s good music and better food you’re after, join us for the Celtic Bayou Festival (March 14 - 15) and Festival International (April 23 -27) for some of the finest cultural music lineups in the region. Finally, for the more athletically inclined, Cycle Zydeco (April 23 - 27) is Louisiana’s finest Cajun & Creole Cycling Festival, overflowing with food, live music, swamp tours, crawfish boils, and unique cycling routes to enjoy.

Learn more at lafayettetravel.com.

Barksdale Defenders of Liberty Air Show

Want to see a B-1, B-2, and B-52 up close and personal? Join us for the Barksdale Defenders of Liberty Air Show March 29 and 30 at Barskdale AFB in Bossier City, LA. Come with family and friends and spend a great day packed with spectacular displays at the nation’s premier strategic bomber

base. This year’s event brings in The USAF Thunderbirds.

Held for the first time in 1933, the Barksdale Defenders of Liberty Air Show is a full-weekend spectacular featuring displays of the latest military and civilian aircraft and other related performers.

The Barksdale Defender of Liberty Air Show serves to enhance public awareness of U.S. Air Force capabilities and the Barks-

dale AFB mission through static displays and aerobatic performances. Likewise, it allows Shreveport-Bossier City to showcase Louisiana as the home of the B-52, pay tribute to service members, and support the recruiting arm of the United States Armed Forces.

West Baton Rouge Convention & Visitors Bureau

The 20th Anniversary Kite Fest is ready to fill the skies with color and life on April 26-27, 2025 in Port Allen. Named “Festival of the Year” by the Louisiana Travel Promotion Association and Top 20 Event by the Southeast Tourism Society, this free to the public event will feature Kite Design Competitions, Children’s Kite Making Workshops, Indoor Kite Flying, as well as Professional Kite Flying Teams and plenty of space to fly Kites just for fun. For musical accompaniment, Waters Edge will be playing from four to eight with a fireworks spectacular set to light up the night alongside specially lighted kites for a dazzling show you won’t want to miss! Be sure to bring your lawn chairs but leave the pets and ice chests at home. Join us for high flying fun! Kite Fest hours are 11:00 a.m. till fireworks at dusk on Saturday, April 26, 2025 and 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 27, 2025.

Remembering the Past

Exploring Mansfield State Historic Site

STORY AND PHOTOS BY KEVIN RABALAIS

ON THE SURFACE, the land along the 3/4th mile Battlefield Trail at Mansfield State Historic Site appears familiar to anyone who has spent time in the Louisiana outdoors. Wind whispers through long needles of loblolly pines, and you turn at the sound of claws scratching bark to watch two squirrels scurry up a trunk. Cardinals flutter overhead. A woodpecker drums in the distance. In this tranquil setting three miles southeast of Mansfield, Confederate and Union soldiers fought the bloodiest battle of the Red River Campaign.

“So many people died in such a short time,” says Park Manager Amy Boone. “If no one came to collect your body, you were buried in a mass grave.” In the visitor center museum, she points to signage that leads visitors through the chronology of the battle. “People who visit are always most surprised by the number of casualties,” says Boone. On April 8, 1864, Major General Richard Taylor’s Confederate troops

nearly destroyed two divisions of the Union’s 13th Army Corps. The Confederates sustained a reported 1,100 casualties, the Union, 2,330. Historians believe the numbers could be much higher.

War correspondent John Russell Young was on the staff of Union General Nathaniel P. Banks and present on the day of the battle. Young published the first account of the 1861 Battle of Bull Run and documented the chaos and carnage at Mansfield: “Suddenly there was a rush, a shout, a crashing of trees, the breaking down of rails, the rush and scamper of men … we found ourselves swallowed up, as it were, in a hissing, seething, bubbling whirlpool of agitated men.”

Also known as the Battle of Sabine Crossroads, the Battle of Mansfield was the last major Confederate victory and, with a combined total of almost 30,000 troops, one of the largest Civil War battles fought west of the Mississippi River. It unfolded in several phases, starting along the Shreveport-Natchitoches Road, which LA Highway 175 now closely follows, and ended along Chapman’s Bayou, three miles southeast of the visitor center.

On April 8, 1864, Union and Confederate soldiers formed a battle line along a split-rail fence similar to this one at Honeycutt Hill. General Alfred Mouton died leading the attack. His monument rises among others at the entrance to the Mansfield State Historic Site.

“All of this was cotton country,” Boone says, explaining the region’s economic importance at a time when New England textile factories starved for lack of the crop. After the surrender of Vicksburg, the Union Army controlled the Mississippi River and looked toward Louisiana. To capture Shreveport, 40 miles north of today’s Mansfield State Historic Site, could mean the end of the war. The battle here, Boone says, “was Louisiana’s great Civil War battle, a turning point in the Red River Campaign.” In a documentary that screens in the visitor center’s research library, historian Gary Joiner says that

the decisive victory kept the Confederate government in place for another year. Indeed, on April 9, 1865, one year and one day after the Battle of Mansfield, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant in Appomattox, Virginia.

More than a century after Lee’s surrender, the Virginia-born photographer Sally Mann began photographing Civil War battlefields using a mid-19th century photographic process. In her artist statement for this work, Mann speaks of the trees growing today at Manassas and Appomattox as “silent witnesses to so much of what

happened on my poor, heartbroken Southern soil — so many of them are ancient, and surely they hold deep in their woody souls that which happened when the lives of men intersected with theirs when they were saplings ....” Mann’s images urge the viewer to witness the ways that the past echoes inside the present. Another Southerner, the Mississippi Nobel laureate William Faulkner, reminds us of what so many in the South know intuitively. “The past is never dead,” he writes in “Requiem for a Nun.” “It’s not even past.” The photographer and novelist address our inheritance as people born here, in

this place, rather than in another. Their work stands against the cacophonous rush of contemporary life and its goal to convince us that the immediate reigns supreme and little about the past remains worth knowing. But while we can look, we should remember to see. And while we can see, we should remember to acknowledge what came before.

LOCATION

DeSoto Parish

DID YOU KNOW?

In 1973, the Mansfield State Historic Site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, an honorary designation for significant historical sites.

Visitors to the museum at Mansfield State Historic Site walk through a chronological history of the battle. Park Manager Amy Boone (left) organizes regular exhibits, film screenings, battle reenactments, and interpretive programs at the site. “We do everything we can to get the community involved,” she says. The museum also includes a marble mantle that decorated the East Room of the White House throughout the terms of presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to Harry S. Truman.

Easy Escape

St. Francisville marries small-town charm with big-city sophistication for an indulgent getaway

STORY AND PHOTOS BY MELANIE WARNER SPENC ER

THE NATURAL BEAUTY of St. Francisville’s rolling hills, bluffs and ridges, pristine historic homes, quaint boutiques and top-notch eateries is like a “Gilmore Girls” Stars Hollow fever-dream. For our three-day escape to the charming town, my husband Mark and I had hiking in nearby Tunica Hills and biking downtown on our agenda, but rainy weather changed our plans. You might say we didn’t get the trip we wanted, but we got the one we needed.

After getting settled in the spacious Sun Porch room at the Shadetree Inn, we enjoyed the room’s complimentary champagne. The Shadetree is owned by Kenwood Kennon, son of former governor Robert F. Kennon — for whom a set of rooms is named — and managed by the Louisiana Hospitality Group. (A management group owned by celebrity designer and Washington Parish native Brandon Branch and husband Jim Johnston along with the St. Francisville Inn. Some might know Branch from his stint on Bravo’s “Southern Charm Savannah.”) The Shadetree is less than a mile from the St. Francisville Inn but, situated on approximately four acres, it feels like a cabin in the woods. The fire pit, a hammock, the extensive back deck and an invitation to hike the property add to the remote cabin vibes, while check-in and a daily complimentary continental breakfast at the St. Francisville Inn elevate the experience. Our room included a plush king-sized bed, L’Occitane toiletries and in-room Community Coffee in the enclosed sun porch-cum-kitchenette stocked with a mini-fridge, glassware, flatware, tableware, a writing desk and a cozy banquette flanked on all sides by windows with a tree-lined view.

With our hiking adventure rained out, we popped over to The Myrtles for coffee at Elta. Touted as one of the most haunted homes in the country, the circa-1796 antebellum Myrtles plantation (which offers

tours throughout the day) operates as a luxe boutique hotel with cottages, private homes and traditionally appointed hotel rooms available for guests, as well as Restaurant 1796 and the specialty coffee shop, both open to the public. Elta serves coffee from one of my favorite Acadiana roasters, Rêve Coffee Lab, so I was eager to try it. We grabbed a couple of hot lattes and took an amble around the property’s teal-hued pond encircled by rustic cottages. The pond is also home to a charming little floating cottage for a family of mallards and an island outfitted with Adirondack chairs and a firepit, accessible by an enchanting white footbridge. Our coffee walk coincided with dusk, adding another layer of mystery and dreaminess to the property as the pathways became illuminated and diners filed into the restaurant to savor Chef Daniel Dreher’s creations for the evening. While tempted, we had our hearts and palates set on a more casual experience for dinner — pizza. Having heard great things about Big River Pizza Co., we drove 1.6 miles back downtown. One fresh Caesar salad and an expertly wood-fired, bubbling Neapolitan-style pepperoni pizza later, I was surprised to discover I had room left for dessert at the adjoining (and

diminutive) Away Down South ice cream parlor and candy store. The owner sources the frozen goods from New Orleans Ice Cream Company. After tasting the bananas Foster and gator tracks (with caramel, chocolate, peanuts and peanut butter in vanilla ice cream), I opted for the creamy, chunky rocky road, but there are lots of flavors to choose from and you can’t go wrong.

We’d also heard tell of a speakeasy in St. Francisville, but as avowed skeptics of bars with that description, we were wary and hadn’t yet decided whether or not to bother. Lo and behold the speakeasy, Proud Mary’s, is located inside Big River Pizza Co. As you make your way down the hallway to the left of the pizza counter you’ll see Proud Mary’s written in glowing neon above a door, but don’t be fooled, the entrance is through the armoire on the right. When you come out the other side of the furniture, you’ll think you’ve been plonked into an alternate universe in a cosmopolitan city. Indeed, the walls are the pinky-red color of a classic cosmo cocktail, which you can order from the craft cocktail menu, along with a host of martinis, other classics (like an old fashioned), one of the bar’s signature cocktails, Prohibition and Italian classics, as well as beer and wine.

The continental breakfast at the St. Francisville Inn is included in the complimentary services at the nearby pre-Civil War cottage, the Shadetree Inn, which is managed by the former. The Hemingbough Cultural Center and event venue’s grounds are open to visitors year round. Don’t be fooled by its Greek Revival-style architecture; the center was built in the 1980s. Even if you aren’t staying at the circa-1796 antebellum Myrtles plantation, its beautiful grounds are open to the public. Have dinner at Restaurant 1796 and coffee at Elta.

Magnolia Cafe began as a health food store in the 1980s and swiftly became a charming local restaurant and bar. Get the burger or the French Dip Poboy with au jus. Pass through the hidden entrance of Proud Mary speakeasy and be transported to a cosmopolitan, craft cocktail bar. The Cajun French Martini at the The Saint bar at the St. Francisville Inn will knock your socks off. Don’t skip Neapolitan-style pizza at Big River Pizza Co.

LA RAMBLER

You can also enjoy items from the Big River Pizza Co. menu in this saucy setting. Proud Mary’s cured me of my speakeasy bias. On that note, we called it a night. While hiking the next day was still out of the question due to squishy, rain-soaked soil, we were able to squeeze in a tromp around Hemingbough Cultural Center and event venue. The Greek Revival-style architecture at Hemingbough belies its late ‘80s construction. With the grandeur of the buildings, reflection pond, sculptures, roaming peacocks (we counted 13), sunken garden maze, amphitheater, follies and Japanese garden, you’ll think you’ve been dropped into the set of a Jane Austen adaptation. The owner, developer Arlin Dease, keeps the grounds and gates open so visitors can enjoy the surrounding nature and his monumental vision. We worked up an appetite, so lunch at the Magnolia Cafe (the French Dip Poboy with au jus for me and a Famous Mag Burger for Mark) was a must.

Fortified, we ducked into The Conundrum bookstore, District Mercantile and Corbel garden center for a little shopping. There are plenty more shops, so if you go, plan an afternoon and be sure to hit Birdman Coffeehouse and Eatery for specialty coffee and a to-die-for pastry (or a full breakfast). Later that afternoon, we enjoyed happy hour cocktails at the fabulous The Saint bar at the St. Francisville Inn. Do yourself a favor and get the Cajun French Martini, a balanced mix of vodka, Chambord and pineapple juice decadently topped with champagne and chilled Luxardo cherry juice. The restaurant at the inn has breakfast, lunch and dinner service that’ll leave you feeling well-fed and cared for, while the spa offers a full menu of luxurious services for those who want to be pampered. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to try The Francis Southern Table & Bar nearby on Highway 61, but it’s on the shortlist for our next visit to St. Francisville.

On our way out of town, we visited a few of the bijou historic churches (the Methodist church on Royal and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Catholic Church on Ferdinand), as well as the far more grand, circa-1800s Grace Church of West Feliciana and its adjacent graveyard and historic burial ground. In hindsight, three days wasn’t nearly enough time and we’re already planning our next visit.

LOCATION

St. Francisville

The town of St. Francisville isn’t the highest point in Louisiana, but at 115 feet, the elevation might have you thinking you are at the foothills of a mountain town.

218

St. Francisville was founded 218 years ago in 1807 and is the oldest town in the Florida Parishes.

20,000

The Saint bar at the St. Francisville Inn sells tens of thousands of its popular Cajun French Martini cocktail a year and this fizzy concoction is as beautiful as it is deadly, so watch out.

Sippin’ and Strollin’

A perfect getaway in Grapevine, Texas

BY CHERÉ COEN

EXIT THE DALLAS-FORT WORTH AIRPORT and you’re smack dab in Grapevine, Texas. This quaint, historic town 30 minutes from both downtown Dallas and Fort Worth is known for its massive resorts, fine dining and shopping along its historic Main Street and numerous festivals and the largest Christmas display in the state. Texas is the fifth largest wine producer in the United States and although Grapevine doesn’t include actual acreage of vineyards, it is home to numerous wineries offering tasting rooms and serves as the headquarters for the Texas wine industry. The award-winning Messina Hof, for instance, grows its grapes in Bryan but serves its wine in an elegant tasting room on Main Street and Grapevine Wine Tours will introduce visitors to an assortment of wines while they do all the driving to and from accommodations. For those who’d rather not drive, the TEXRail commuter train carries visitors from the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport right into downtown Grapevine and city shuttles take visitors around town for free.

DAY ONE

MORNING – Main Street Grapevine contains boutique shops, restaurants and art galleries within historic buildings that date to the 1800s and the turn of the 20th century. One quaint spot to start your morning is Chez Fabien with its bakery on one side and a Frenchstyle café on the other. Chez Fabien serves up a variety of dishes but don’t miss their award-winning pastries. We recommend the chocolate almond croissant. Absolutely delish.

AFTERNOON – Tour Grapevine Main Street and pop in and out of the many shops owned by locals. At one end is the Grapevine Glockenspiel Clock Tower, the historic

From Left to Right: Winestein’s Tasting Room; Crepe at Chez Fabien; The Rioja Rooftop at Hotel Vin; Meow Wolf

depot where the Grapevine Vintage Railroad departs for special excursions and Grapevine Main Station, a 20,000-square-foot food and entertainment destination that includes restaurants and bars, the boutique Hotel Vin and the Grapevine Observation Tower with 360-degree views of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Stop for lunch at Weinberger’s, a Chicago-style deli that serves up outstanding sandwiches such as The Settler, known as Thanksgiving dinner in a sandwich, or the vegan bahn mi.

EVENING – Catch a performance at the historic Palace Theatre on Main Street, then enjoy Italian favorites and craft cocktails at Napoli’s Italian Kitchen & Market across the street.

DAY TWO

MORNING – Tour Nash Farm, a 5.2-acre historical landmark that dates to the mid-1800s. In addition to tours of the home and farm, including animals, special events are held throughout the year, including Spring Into Nash agricultural festival on April 26 where visitors can experience 19th-century skills and trades.

AFTERNOON – Grapevine Mills is one of the largest and most impressive malls featuring a wide variety of stores. It also contains Legoland and Sea Life aquarium attractions, both offering hours of fun. Don’t miss the expressive creative energy that’s Meow Wolf, a space featuring both Texas and national artists telling an imaginative story that’s interactive and life-size. And when we say life-size, we’re talking an actual house where through appliances visitors will discover numerous rooms that contain everything from travel trailers to massive trees.

EVENING – Grab the comfortable van at Grapevine Wine Tours and leave the driving to someone else. Tour organizers pick up participants at area hotels and take them to winery tasting rooms around town where they learn about the Texas wine industry as well as sample the state’s best. One spot we especially loved was Winestein’s Tasting Room, where Michael and Maranda Einstein serve up a lovely selection of world wines and a tasty charcuterie board while explaining the regions where the wines originated. There’s dinner at the conclusion of the Wine Tour, complemented by wines, of course.

Don’t Forget

If you’re traveling with kids, it’s hard to beat the Great Wolf Lodge with its 80,000-squarefoot water park and a host of amenities, such as the kids-only spa. On the adult side, but family friendly as well, is the Gaylord Texan Resort next to Lake Grapevine. This “mega-resort” hosts numerous restaurants, shopping, a water park and a spa.

Whistle Wonderland

Tree duck on LSU Lakes during snow storm 2025

BY KALEB BABIN, BATON ROUGE