Traditionally served over rice, courtbouillon is somewhere between a stew and a gumbo. Some like to eat it more on the soupy side, with a spoon, while others prefer less broth and a fork. Potato salad is the perfect accompaniment.

Catahoula Elementary School student-parent handbook for the 1970-71 school year

Transcription of a brochure announcing the Grand Opening of Rousseau’s Catahoula Inn

In one sense music is short-lived. You sing a song, you fiddle a tune, and it’s over in less than four minutes. But in another sense, music lives longer than any of us. Like fire that passes from one candle to another, the performer sparks the listener, the teacher sparks the student, and on and on it goes.

You won’t find them in stores, they grow among thorns, and who knows what wild creatures you might startle with your rubber boots when you trudge through the vines to collect them, but there’s just no substitute for the taste of wild dewberries, and this cobbler is their perfect showcase. The perfect balance between sweet and tart, chewy and gooey, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream ties it all together.

When the last shades of night had passed away and the sun in her brightness shone down on St. Martinville and brought forth another day, it found the town arrayed in all her beauty, and every decoration that was possible for human ingenuity to construct in every place possible to welcome the King of Kommerce, and the people began coming from every direction, and by noon it was easily perceived that the display would be a grand success.

In 1982 archaeologist Dr. Jon L. Gibson, coordinating a team of scholars, put together a comprehensive report on the cultural resources of the Atchafalaya Basin after extensive fieldwork in the area. The report, Archaeology and Ethnology on the Edges of the Atchafalaya Basin, featured a description of the St. Rita Church Fair in Catahoula, which is excerpted below. Photographs of the church fair have been sourced by me from residents of Catahoula.

There’s no sign on the road alerting you to its presence, and driving through the sparsely inhabited area on the outskirts of Catahoula, which is covered with sugar cane like much of the rest of the parish, the rural landscape calls no particular attention to itself. You’d never suspect that remnants of a prehistoric society lie buried just below the surface.

Gammy’s recipe for tarte à la bouillie combines an extra-thick, pudding-like custard filling with a cookie-like sweet dough pie crust.

On Saturday, May 7, 1842 Catahoula Lake, without warning, rose more than six feet, according to an inhabitant of Catahoula who was fishing in the lake at the time.

When I first saw the forecast saying it would get down into the low twenties, maybe even into the teens, I did consider postponing. We are simply not prepared for that kind of weather in southern Louisiana. Pipes burst, the roads ice over, and heaters struggle to keep up with the cold. Would the almost-two-hundred-year-old building be warm enough?

Initiative to revive native population of Louisiana irises on Bayou Teche gathers momentum.

If autumn in St. Martin Parish is synonymous with sugar cane harvest, then gateau sirop, a traditional spice cake made from cane syrup, is surely the dessert of that season.

If you know only one thing about me, know this. When it comes to any kind of historical anything about Catahoula, I will always say yes.

Legend has it that about two centuries ago, before the arrival of the Acadian exiles, a peaceful Indian village in what is now St. Martin Parish completely disappeared when the earth opened up and swallowed the entire camp.

My Uncle Cheese has been catching crawfish one way or another since 1938. In February, March and April of this year, I tagged along as he went crawfishing in the Atchafalaya Basin, and I photographed the entire process from bait to boil.

Unlike other recipes where the figs get lost in the dough, the spiral shape of this cookie highlights the fig and achieves the perfect proportion of texture, chew and crunch.

Because of their tartness, blackberries, in my opinion, are best eaten in a cobbler or in a pie, rather than right off the vine. So when blackberries came into season recently, and I found myself with a bucketful, I went looking for a good pie recipe.

The story behind the contest to name Evangeline’s Daughter

I had heard of black bears in the Basin. I never imagined I would see one in Catahoula. But there it was, two Thanksgivings ago, toddling across the turn-row of the cane-field, so close I could see its nose.