The Louisiana Bayou Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to removing litter and debris from Louisiana’s bayous and their watersheds, has been tending to the health of our parish at water level for a little over a year now.

Turning to our own southern Louisiana landscape, we find ourselves now in the middle of what we might call our live oak fall. Do you know that live oaks lose their leaves every year? We call them evergreens, and it’s true, they are always green, but they lose their leaves every year just like any other oak. They just wait until spring to do it.

Desiree S. Evans wanted to be Lois Lane when she was a young girl growing up in St. Martinville, and in a way, that’s exactly who she has become—curious, fearless and drawn to stories that matter, guided by the belief that words themselves are an exquisite form of power.

Many of you will remember your mother or grandmother whipping up this cake from scratch with no cookbook in sight, just fresh pecans, sugar, butter, and milk coming together in exactly the right proportions. For those who appreciate a little more structure when it comes to baking, I’ve translated that intuitive kitchen magic into an easy, step-by-step recipe.

Breaux Bridge native Yvette Landry has added a new title to her growing bookshelf with The Wild Girl of Catahoula, a work of juvenile fiction inspired by reported sightings of a feral girl in late-19th-century Louisiana.

A free concert of Louisiana roots music will take place at the historic Duchamp Opera House in downtown St. Martinville this Sunday, November 23rd from 2:30 to 3:00.

Gammy wanted her coffin made before she died.

The crawfish processing industry got its start on the peaceful banks of Catahoula Lake back in 1949 when Abby Latiolais established the very first commercial cleaning plant near his home just across the Catahoula bridge.

An early variety of sugar cane, Co. 290, was brought from India to Louisiana in the early 20th century. With its striking deep purple stalks, thick cores and rich, flavorful juice, it quickly became a favorite, not just among farmers, but also among families, perfect for making a dark and deeply flavored molasses or splitting open with a pocketknife and chewing fresh.

St. Martin Parish covers a lot of ground, stretching from the same latitude as Baton Rouge at its northernmost point all the way down to practically Morgan City at its southernmost point, across prairies and rolling hills, it’s true there are only a few, across bayous, lagoons and bald cypress swamps . . .

Used to be that every family up and down the bayou kept a few cows or goats, raised chickens for eggs, and tended small vegetable gardens to grow what they needed. Whatever they didn’t have, they bartered for with neighbors. When you drive down the oak-lined lane that leads to Belle Ecorce Farms in St. Martinville, you feel echoes of those simpler days.

Marcelle Bienvenu never intended to pursue a career in food, but after over fifty years as a cookbook author, food historian, food writer and restaurant owner, she’s a testament to the fact that sometimes life is bigger than our intentions.

André Courville’s passion for music has taken him from Cecilia, Louisiana to the most celebrated stages in the world—Carnegie Hall in New York City, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, Guangzhou Opera House in China, the Sante Fe Opera—and this May, the renowned bass-baritone will be channeling that wealth of experience into an ambitious music festival right here in St. Martin Parish.

I was invited to spend some time today with the gifted class at Teche Elementary. Patrice Greig Royer let me know that her students have been very interested in science and nature lately, and I came up with a lesson plan from there.

The St. Martin Parish Courthouse, which was placed on the National Register on November 19, 1981, is significant as one of the few examples of a complete temple form of Greek Revival building in Louisiana.

A good crab stew requires few flavors beyond what the crabs and some basic ingredients provide.

A blue moon occurs every two or three years. Snowfall in southern Louisiana, then, is the equivalent of about four or five blue moons.

I didn’t go kayaking expecting to find them. I went kayaking expecting to find something I wasn’t expecting. That is one of the swamp’s many charms. You never know what you will see.

An azalea in Catahoula had become an obstacle to mowing, so my mom and I decided to dig it up one morning and transplant it somewhere on the island.

The second concert in the Live from Duchamp Opera House concert series to spotlight two iconic instruments of Cajun music—the fiddle and the accordion.