by (I am writing this in Tucson, while waiting to move into my new home.)
Harvesting Sugar Cane in Louisiana
September is almost here and it is time for the sugar cane harvest in Southern Louisiana. If it weren’t so far to drive (and I am very tired of driving!) I’d love to see the cane harvest and visit a sugar cane factory in action. When I visited the factory, below, earlier in summer only a few employees were around doing maintenance and no sugar canes were being processed. They were still in the ground in a field across the highway.
Taking a tour of a local rum distillery might be fun, too. There seem to be only 3 rum distilleries in the state which is surprising because there is a whole lot of sugar cane there. Miles and miles of cane fields line the narrow two lane state highways.
Mechanized harvesting–no ox carts
I’m sure that, unlike the cane harvest in the Dominican Republic where canes are hauled to the sugar and rum factories by ox cart, the Louisiana harvest is trucked to the factories like the one, above, outside Morgan City. After seeing the cane on an ox cart in the D.R. I wondered if they were still harvesting by hand, but we were on our way to the airport so I never learned the facts. In Louisiana the entire cycle from planting to harvest is done by large tractors with cabs that elevate as the cane grows taller. Sorry, but I don’t have a photo of these.
An old Cajun town near the heart of the sugar land
And then there is New Iberia, Louisiana, in the heart of cane country which I loved but never quite got around to writing about. However, a while back I posted photos of 2 murals in this small town that seemed to be fighting back against the Vanishing Main Street syndrome. There are a few vacant storefronts, but many spaces have been put to new use. For example, an old hotel is now a luxury B&B. And Radio Station KANE is located in a former dress shop location on Main Street. Shades of the movie “Grosse Pointe Blank”!
Then there was a sign outside the bookstore on the Main Street promoting a James Lee Burke’s book, “New Iberia Blues”. What made me laugh was the cover illustration of a rusticated man paddling a canoe in a swamp. Believe me, if you saw a man in a canoe in this part of Louisiana, he would probably be leading a group of Millennials on a 4 hour kayak/canoe adventure to locations that are “instagrammable”. Or else leading a group of middle-aged men out to go fishing in a nearby lake.
I haven’t read “New Iberia Blues”, but plan to do so, soon.
Before I wind up this post I have a book recommendation: “The After Days” by Amy Ginsburg. It focuses on the lives of 2 contemporary women and and their husbands during an electrical blackout caused by a cyber-attack on an East Coast power company. The month-long blackout transforms their lives. It is a compelling novel.
Visit my author’s site to see books I have published
Read with interest your post on the Dowty tomb in reference to Lestat the Vampire. You were interested in Coshati Neal Dark a non relative. Actually she was the mother- in- law to J.C. Dowty. Coshati was my several times removed g grandmother. Also more mystery to the tomb. J.C. Dowty is not buried there. He died on the steamboat “Stonewall” when it burned at Neelys Landing Missouri. Coshati herself had a tomb built in the Neal Dark cemetery in Boyce Louisiana. Obviously she is not buried there. She died while in New Orleans and is buried in the Dowty tomb. Genealogy can drive one crazy.
Thanks,Tommy! The tombs in Louisiana are one mystery after another, but you’ve brought some light to Coshati and the burial traditions in this part of our country.