Story and recipes by Cynthia Nobles

Aaron Guidroz, his wife Kristina, and their son Lane all pitch in to run one of our state’s largest mail-order breeding quail and quail hatching egg businesses — one that was built from ground up twice.

Galliano is a small community along southeast Louisiana’s Bayou Lafourche, and for 15 years Aaron had only sold quail from there to friends and relatives. Then, in the middle of the covid lockdown, he decided to make his hobby a bigger part of his full-time profession. First, he had to buy some land.

“I had a fast-paced oilfield job,” he said. “During covid I was fortunate enough to still work. Then we started realizing how important it was to raise our own food. That’s when we purchased our forever home here in Galliano, right in the middle of the pandemic.”

Originally, the Guidroz farm was nothing but a house surrounded by bad soil covered in grass. “And stores were closed,” said Guidroz. “There was nowhere to buy garden supplies, and no farm animals to purchase. But we managed to haul in dirt. We built raised gardens and built animal infrastructure. We had some quail and thought we were set.”
            
In spite of what at first seemed a disaster, the family’s homestead thrived and their quail business skyrocketed. “During covid people wanted something to do,” he said. “And they wanted quail for food.”

A year later their fledgling yet prosperous business took a devastating blow, when along came Hurricane Ida. “That hurricane decimated our community, our new home, and our lives,” said Aaron. “We lost more animals than I care to mention.”
            
For months, the family had no electricity, internet, or grocery stores. “We ate food we had prepared and preserved. Our pantry slowly went bare, but we were happy and well fed. Most of all we were together.”
            
Undeterred, they rebuilt. Today, Aaron works for a nearby boat company, in addition to raising quail. His family’s farmstead is a post card picture of fruit trees and raised vegetable beds. The Guidroz’s tend to beehives, goats, chickens, pigs, rabbits, two pet emus, and thousands and thousands of quail. 
            
They raise regular sized and jumbo Coturnix quail, a variety domesticated in Asia centuries ago.

Coturnix birds are excellent meat birds, and they grow quickly and have large breasts. Hens are prolific egg layers and begin laying at only 8 weeks old. Fertile quail eggs incubate in just 17 days. 

Kristina takes charge of incubation. “After a quail hatches, we can butcher from 8-10 weeks,” said Aaron. “That seems like a short life, but our birds live well. And they only have one bad day.”
            
The Guidroz quail barn is neatly packed with aviaries, which look like chicken runs, and stacks and stacks of cages.
            
“Everything stays in the barn,” says Aaron. “Inside it’s easier to keep our quail warm and away from predators and diseases.” A few of the many types in these cages are Rosetta, Tibetian, Scarlett, Range, Italian, Black and White Pearl Fee and Pansy Fee, and Celedons, as well as Jumbo Egyptian Browns and Jumbo Whites.
            
The Guidroz family’s day begins by checking the automatic water system that fills the birds’ water cups. “Next we give them game bird crumble,” Aaron says of the quails’ high protein, nutrient specific feed. “Then we do a general health check and look for injury and illness.”
            
Evening is the time for egg collecting. “We separate them by color,” says Aaron. “Then Lane packages egg orders.”
            
Fertilized eggs and live breeding quail are shipped six days a week through the postal service. “We ship to every state but Hawaii and New Mexico,” says Aaron. The national average survival rate of mailed quail eggs is 50 percent. Aaron is justly proud that his survival rate is 72 percent.
            
Although Mother Nature tried her best to financially ruin Aaron, Kristina, and Lane Guidroz, the family remains passionate about farming quail. “Even if we stop selling quail,” Aaron says, “we’ll never stop raising them.” 

Aaron says he enjoys giving presentations to groups to raise quail awareness. If you would like him to speak to your group or if you would like to purchase live quail or eggs, contact him at 985-228-1138. You can also email him through Facebook, or take a look at his website: www.guidrozfamilyfarm.com.
 
            

​Sausage Stuffed Quail
Makes 4
 
4 whole semi-boneless quail
Salt and pepper
1 cup fresh bulk pork sausage
4 slices bacon
Smoked paprika
 
1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Pat quail dry and season generously inside and out with salt and pepper. Stuff each cavity with ¼ cup pork sausage. Wrap each quail with bacon and secure with toothpicks. Sprinkle quail with smoked paprika.
2. Place quail in a greased baking dish and cover with aluminum foil. Bake 30 minutes. Remove foil and lower oven to 350°F. Bake until quail and bacon are nicely brown and when an instant-read thermometer inserted in the sausage reads at least 160°F, 20-25 more minutes. Remove from oven and serve warm. (If desired, thicken the pan drippings with a flour slurry or butter and season with lemon juice, herbs, Marsala wine, etc.)
 
 
Quail in a Blanket
Makes 8 (adapted from a recipe by Aaron Guidroz)
 
8 quail breasts, deboned
1 tablespoon cooking oil
Salt and pepper
1 (8-roll) package Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
For serving: your favorite spicy mustard dipping sauce
 
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Pat quail breasts dry. Heat oil in a heavy skillet over medium-high and sear breasts until just cooked through and golden brown, 1-2 minutes per side. Remove from skillet and season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
2. Unroll crescent rolls. Place a cooked quail breast on the inside edges of the wide ends of each roll. If desired, trim the widest parts of the dough to fit the breasts. Beginning from the wide ends, roll the dough pieces, making sure that the quail breasts remain in the middle. Seam side down, place the rolls on a cookie sheet.
3. Bake until golden brown, 12-15 minutes. Serve warm with dipping sauce.
            
 
 
Cajun Pickled Quail Eggs
Makes 1 pint
 
10-12 quail eggs
1 cup white vinegar
1 (6-ounce) bottle Louisiana-style hot sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon salt
 
1. Sterilize a 1-pint glass jar and its lid and set aside. Place quail eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, turn heat to low, and simmer 4 minutes, uncovered. Remove saucepan from heat, cover it, and let sit 2 minutes. Peel the eggs and place them in the clean jar.
2. In a small saucepan combine the vinegar, hot sauce, sugar, and salt. Bring to a boil and cook 30 seconds. Pour the hot liquid over the eggs in the jar, making sure all eggs are covered. Cover the jar and let cool at room temperature. After jar is cool refrigerate at least a week. Store in the refrigerator.

Story, photos and recipes by Cynthia Nobles 

Even as a child, Michaela Smith dreamed of owning a country-style mercantile store. That dream came true in August 2024, when she opened her “organic, clean, and all-natural as possible” Little Willow Mercantile in DeRidder’s Historic Downtown District.  
            
Michaela, her husband, Eric, and their four young children are Mennonites. Eric, who works at a logging company, comes from a close-knit Mennonite community that settled in Beauregard Parish in the early 1930s. Michaela hails from another Mennonite congregation in North Georgia, and she moved to DeRidder when she was eighteen.
            
“Our family lives on a farm,” Michaela says of the couple’s simple lifestyle. “We raise horses, goats, pigs, chickens, and grass-fed cattle. We butcher our own meat and collect eggs from the chickens. Our twin girls are 8 years old, and our boys are 3 and 5, and they all help.” 
            
It was on this farm that Michala first started selling organic grains. “Around 2018-19 we realized how unhealthy some conventional foods are, as well as the things we put on our skin. I did some research and I learned, for example, that your body needs the nutrition from the kernel in wheat. I started ordering organic grains, and then cheeses and herbs. Much of it was in bulk, and I would split large orders with friends at church.”

Her next move was to make a business out of selling organic products. “At first, I sold from a building in my backyard. I had lots of customers. I also have a half-mile driveway that gets muddy when it rains, and I hated making those customers drive through that. So I opened a stand-alone store.”
            
Today, Little Willow Mercantile operates in a spacious old department store building that had been empty for two years, and which Michaela’s family refurbished. She fashions her charming store’s inventory on her and her extended family’s no-frills way of living. 

“I started by selling basic healthy food items to make your own health foods,” she said. “Now I am constantly adding new products.” 
            
Part museum and part store, Little Willow’s building takes you back to a time when most stores had soaring dark ceilings and well-worn wood floors. An antique seed case holds a variety of dried beans.

Aisles and walls are neatly lined with jars and bulk canisters of sweets, dried herbs, loose teas, vinegars, local honey, homemade elderberry syrup, and homemade vanilla, things perfect for filling the gift baskets Michaela can make and ship. 

​On the side of an antique cash register stands crates of local sweet potatoes and cartons of yard eggs. In the middle of the store are huge sacks of the wheat and corn that Michaela grinds into flour to order. Close to the grains is that “new” favorite cooking oil of the health-conscious — tallow.

The store does have a display refrigerator that holds perishables, such as a wide variety of organic cheeses made by members of a Mennonite church in Wisconsin. Michaela is also researching requirements for selling raw milk from her own cattle and goats, and she is waiting on delivery of a freezer that will allow her to sell local hormone-free beef.

“Dry goods” include hand-made quilts, locally-made crafts and pottery, and homemade goat soaps and candles. Michaela makes lip balms and moisturizers from tallow. A centerpiece table holds toys that don’t run on batteries or computer chips. Polished wood-trimmed display cases hold just about everything else imaginable from early last century. 

The store has three full-time and three part-time employees. Some are family members. Michaela especially points out her grandfather, who roasts her organic coffee beans, and her grandmother, Karen Giesbrecht, who takes charge of a handsome display of cotton and linen dress fabrics and notions. 

​Not surprisingly, two of Little Willow’s best-selling items are freshly-milled flour and cornmeal. If customers need ideas for using their whole grains, Michaela sells a cookbook titled Prairie Flour, which she co-authored.  

​“Business has been very good,” she said of her growing endeavor. “Customers drive two and three hours to get here.”

If you like the idea of buying organic and minimally processed foods and shopping like it’s 1900, it certainly is worth the trip to Little Willow Mercantile in DeRidder. The address is 109 South Washington Street. You can also follow the store on Facebook. 
 
 
 
Italian Pizza 
Makes 2 (10-inch) pizzas
(Adapted from recipe Italian Pizza Crust in Prairie Flour cookbook, by Lori Decker, Karla Nightingale, and Michaela Smith)
 
1 cup warm water (98-100°)
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
2½ cups fresh-milled hard white wheat flour (regular whole wheat, all-purpose, and 00 pizza flours also work)
3 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon Italian seasoning
½ teaspoon dried basil
½ teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
4 tablespoons cornmeal, divided
 
Toppings: Anything you like — marinara sauce and thinly sliced cheeses, cured meats, and veggies, such as olives, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, spinach, jalapeno peppers, and fresh basil
 
1. Make crusts by combining in a small bowl the water, yeast, and sugar. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add flour, oil, salt, Italian seasoning, basil, oregano, and thyme. Drizzle in yeast water and use the dough hook on low speed to combine ingredients. Increase mixer speed to medium and knead until dough is a stretchy ball, 8 minutes. (You can also do this by hand.) Place the dough ball inside a large oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
3. When ready to bake, set the oven to 425°F and heat pizza stones, 2 cast iron skillets, or any heavy-bottomed baking pan you have. When oven is ready, evenly sprinkle 2 tablespoons cornmeal each on 2 regular (room-temperature) pizza pans or the bottoms of large sheet pans. Divide the dough in 2 and use your fingers to stretch the pieces into the sizes you want. Layer on the toppings. 
4. Slide pizzas onto the hot stones or pans in the oven and bake until edges are brown and cheese is bubbly, 10-15 minutes. Serve immediately.
 
 
 
Herbed Cheese Crackers
Makes 32
 
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt, plus more for sprinkling
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ cup softened butter
2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
4 teaspoons minced fresh herbs, such as rosemary, sage, or oregano (or 2 teaspoons dried)
 
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. In a bowl, stir together the flour, ½ teaspoon salt, and cayenne. Set aside. 
2. In a large bowl, use medium mixer speed to beat butter until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the cheese and beat 1 minute. Add the flour mixture and the herbs and beat using low speed until you see small uniform clumps. Use your hands to work the dough into a ball.
3. Lightly dust a sheet of wax paper with flour and roll the dough into a ¼-inch-thick rectangle. Use a knife to cut the dough into 32 square-ish pieces, or whatever size or shape you want. Pierce each square with a fork 3 times and sprinkle lightly with salt.
4. Place crackers an inch apart on the baking sheets and bake until lightly brown, about 20-25 minutes. (Check after 15 minutes to be sure bottoms are not burning.) Cool completely on a rack. Store in an airtight container. To re-crisp crackers, bake 5 minutes in a preheated 350°F oven.
 
 
Oatmeal Walnut Cookies
Makes 3 dozen
(Adapted from Prairie Flour cookbook, by Lori Decker, Karla Nightingale, and Michaela Smith)
 
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, tightly packed
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups fresh-milled hard red wheat flour (or substitute store-bought whole wheat flour)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups chocolate chips
1½ cups rolled oats
¾ cup chopped walnuts
 
1. Preheat oven to 350°F and grease 2 cookie sheets. In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter using medium-high speed 2 minutes. Add brown sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 1 more minute. Beat in eggs, then add vanilla and beat until very light and fluffy, about another minute.
2. Turn mixer speed to low and slowly add flour, salt, and baking soda. Mix until just combined. Add the chocolate chips, oats, and walnuts and beat until just combined.
3. Scoop heaping tablespoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets, leaving 1 inch between balls of dough. Bake until brown around the edges (or however brown you like your cookies), 13-15 minutes. Store in an airtight container up to 5 days. These cookies freeze well.

Story, photos and recipes by Cynthia Nobles

Rachael Savoy of S5 Farms in Welsh raises registered Dexter cattle, a heritage breed that originated in the Kerry region of southwest Ireland. They first appeared in the U.S. around 1905.

Purebred Dexters are famously small, ranging from the size of a large dog, like a Rottweiler, and up to a small Jersey. Their weight range is 700-900 pounds. 

“Mine are definitely smaller than full-sized cattle,” Rachael said, as we wandered through her docile herd. “But they’re not miniatures. Some breed them a lot smaller. Some people want them just as a pet, and I don’t like selling to them. They don’t know how to care from them.”
            
​Rachael sells most of her calves for meat. Every year she also slaughters a couple for her family, and she milks nursing cows twice a day. 

Her first exposure to the breed came from her brother, Rusty. “He had some Dexters but they weren’t registered. I got on Facebook with some people in Texas who knew about them. My first 4 registered cows came from DeRidder. Now I get them from all over.” Her current herd totals 17, but goes higher, depending on selling conditions.

Rachael and her husband, David “Ashley” have been married 19 years and have been living in Welsh’s Ardoin Cove area for 8 years. She started raising Dexters right after their move.

“Ashley is an auto mechanic and I drive a school bus,” Rachael said. “He’s not a farm person. I have a lot of free time during the day so I do most of the work with the cows myself.  

“Growing up I spent a lot of time with an uncle who was a rice and cattle farmer. He had butcher steers and calves. I’d help bottle feed. In high school I showed market steers and lambs. I wanted to be a veterinarian and went to McNeese 3 years. But I didn’t quite finish.”

Since then Rachael has taught herself a lot about Dexters. “Hide colors accepted by the American Dexter Cattle Association are solid-colored black, red, or dun,” she said. 

​“Dexters are hardy, have a high fertility rate, are easy calfers, and produce high-quality meat. 

“The original Irish Dexters were black and they were horned.” The breed’s horns are mid-sized and white with black tips. “Most of mine are homozygous polled; they won’t produce horned offspring. I’m trying to get all polled for safety of the herd.”  

Calves get tagged when they are older, at least 6 months old, because their ears are so little. “Bull calves are so tiny,” Rachael said. “I use a Callicrate Bander and can band them up to 2 years old.”

Rachael keeps just 1 bull at a time. “I usually let mine stay with the cows year-round. But last year I kept him out so they weren’t birthing all year. I like a fall calving, like early November. I don’t want to tend winter calves. They can take the heat, but not the cold.”

To memorialize her first bull, Clyde, Rachael had his hide tanned, and she displays it on her sofa. Clyde’s hide was white. “There was only one cross to get the white color,” she said of the bull she had bought as a calf. 

Despite their lack of size, Dexter cattle are solid and compact. “At one time they were used as plow animals,” Rachael said. “Sure, they’re great for milk and meat. But a long time ago lots of people used to work them like oxen.” 

One reason Rachael likes raising Dexters is that they are easy on pasture. “We can do 1 an acre,” she says of her grass-fed herd. “I’ve kept up to 20 on 12 acres, although some were calves.”

For winter hay, Rachael drives a tractor and bales with her brother. She also puts out liquid feed. All year long she keeps out mineral tubs.

​A remarkable thing about Rachael’s herd is that they are so gentle, which is another trait of the breed. Her cows have names like Matilda, Claire Bear, Vega, Dawn, Jack, and Jim. Then there’s Francine, who was born during the also-named hurricane. “I call them and they come to the pen,” she said. “I’ll feed them and they go through the chute without me prompting. They go into the trailer on their own. Their temperament is almost like a pet’s.

“And they are great mothers. The mamas are so protective. They get in a circle and keep out cayotes. Some won’t let others’ calves nurse, but some will let any cow’s calf nurse.”

Rachael’s biggest challenge is grazing. Although she has taken grazing classes at McNeese and keeps experimenting, there always seems to be a problem with pasture quality. “I keep trying to figure out my grass,” she said. “I’m always fighting smut grass. The first year I planted ryegrass and nothing but buttercups came up.”

Rachael remains determined to win the battle with her grazing grass. And although she has given up on becoming a veterinarian, her daughter might carry out that dream. “She wants to be a veterinarian,” Rachael says. “So one day she’ll hopefully take over my Dexters.”
 
 
 
Smothered Rib Eyes
Makes 4 servings
 
This recipe is an adaptation of one of Rachael Savoy’s specialties. Although you can cook the meat to only medium, Rachael says her family likes it cooked all the way through, which still results in tender, juicy beef. 
 
2 (1-inch-thick) boneless beef rib eye steaks
Salt and pepper
3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
½ medium onion, thinly sliced
1 large bell pepper, chopped
1 cup sliced mushrooms 
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup water
For serving: hot cooked rice or mashed potatoes
 
1. Place a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. While pan is heating, pat steaks dry and season them well with salt and pepper. Add 2 tablespoons oil to the hot skillet and sear the steaks well, about 3 minutes per side. 
2. Remove the meat, add the remaining tablespoon oil to the pot and cook the onion, peppers, and mushrooms until onions are translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté 30 seconds. 
3. Add the steaks and any accumulated juices to the pan. Lower heat to medium and add the water. Cover the pot, simmer 5 minutes, and check for water. Simmer for 2 more 5-minute intervals, checking for water each time. Steaks should just be cooked through after 15 minutes. If gravy is too thin, thicken with a little cornstarch mixed in water. Serve with rice or mashed potatoes.
 
 
Easy Chili and Bean Stuffed Bell Peppers
Makes 4 servings
 
4 medium bell peppers
2 cups cooked rice
1 (15-ounce) can beef chili
1 (15-ounce) can black or pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 cup your favorite salsa
¼ cup bread crumbs
 
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Cut tops off bell peppers and remove seeds. In a large bowl, combine rice, chili, beans, cheese, and salsa. Fill the bell pepper shells with the chili mixture and top with bread crumbs. 
2. Place stuffed peppers in a foil or parchment-lined pan. Cover pan with foil and bake 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake until bell pepper tops are deep golden brown, about 30 more minutes or so. Serve hot.
 
 
Soured Milk Biscuits
Makes 12
 
If you don’t have a cow and can sour your own raw milk, feel free to use store-bought buttermilk.
 
2½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup (1 stick) cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup cold soured raw milk or buttermilk
 
1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Lightly grease a baking sheet. In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Use your fingers to work in the butter until it’s the size of peas. Stir in the milk until the mixture forms a slightly sticky ball.
2. Dust a hard surface well with flour. Transfer the dough to the floured surface and pat it into a 1-inch-high rectangle. Turn the dough over on itself 3 times. Press the dough into a ½-inch-high rectangle. Use a 2½-inch biscuit cutter to cut out dough rounds. (Or you can use a knife and cut the dough into squares.) 
3. Place biscuits a half inch apart on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until light golden brown, 12-15 minutes. Serve hot.

Story, photos and recipes by Cynthia Nobles

To get the most from their crops, many farmers rely on the agricultural wisdom of a certified crop adviser (CCA). Rustin Gilder is Louisiana’s state representative for the national CCA program, and he can give pest, fertilizer, and weed advice with the best of them. 

For 32 years Gilder has been an agricultural product salesman for Crowley Grain, the drier that processes and handles 35-40 percent of Louisiana’s seed rice.  
            
“We grow seed for large companies like Horizon and Nutrien,” Gilder said. “Every decision the farmer and I make in the fall affects what will happen next year.” 
            
For that reason, Gilder sees tremendous value in the CCA program, which requires that an adviser pass rigorous testing for technical knowledge and sign a code of ethics that places the customer’s needs first.
            
“To provide any service or sell agriculture products,” Gilder said, “fieldmen in the industry, whether crop consultants or salespersons, are required to have a certification in their respective areas with the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry. In Louisiana, adding a CCA certification on top of those requirements is entirely voluntary, but it does educate on important details about agricultural products. It also designates professionalism. It distinguishes a CCA from others in the adviser field, and it earns respect from customers and employers.”
            
CCAs develop strong working relationships with farmers, and their expertise is in demand year-round. “Throughout the process, a farmer has a good idea what he wants to do,” Gilder said, “and we provide technical information. For rice, we start next year’s crop in the fall, when the farmer does laser leveling and we help determine fall weed control. In the winter, we do soil samples and give advice on nutrients that need to be added.”
            
As the growing season progresses, a CCA follows his customers’ plant health. “We spend a lot of time in the field,” he said. “For example, on day 10 after a farmer plants rice, we typically go to the fields to check plant stands and herbicide and fertilizer needs. Preventive weed emergence is one of our main goals.”
            
He also mentioned crawfish farming’s impact on local crop advising. “Some newer rice varieties do better in crawfish ponds and we will give advice on that. We used to pull soil samples only on rice first crop. Now with the growth of the crawfish industry, we might pull samples for first crop, second crop, and the crawfish crop.”
            
To remember all those details, Gilder keeps a ledger of information that includes field planting dates, rice varieties, and technologies used.
            
Gilder reminds us that crop advising is a relatively new occupational designation. “There was not much demand for field people 60 years ago,” he said. “County agents used to do most of the advising. Back then there were not many rice varieties and there were only a few pesticides. The necessity of crop advising has grown due to the large amounts of new pesticides and technologies.”
            
A Crowley native, Gilder graduated from LSU in Ag Business and Agronomy. The first three years after college, he simultaneously worked at Crowley Grain and farmed rice, soybeans, and wheat on his in-laws’ farm. “I have always loved farming,” he said. “When I was young I also spent a lot of time with my paw-paw, who was a rice, soybean, and cattle farmer.”
            
Louisiana has 81 certified crop advisers, and the CCA program is administered through the National CCA and The American Society of Agronomy. Gilder says that certification could be of interest to anyone who offers crop advice, including consultants, farm managers, self-employed farmers, and educators and personnel in the agricultural industry.
            
To be a CCA member, you need a B.S. degree in an agronomy-related field plus two years of intern crop advising, or you can qualify with four years of post-high school intern crop advising experience. You must also pass both an international and a Louisiana exam and go through a review by the Louisiana CCA Board.

​To keep your certification, you must earn 40 hours of continuing education every two years. Conventions and seminars are available to keep members current on crop hybrids/varieties, technologies, and application rates.

Rustin Gilder says he would be happy to mentor anyone through the certification process. You can reach him at: [email protected].
 
 
Do you have a Louisiana agriculture story or a recipe you’d like to share? Contact me at [email protected].
 
Cynthia Nobles is the cookbook editor for LSU Press and the author/co-author of several historical cookbooks, including A Confederacy of Dunces Cookbook, The Delta Queen Cookbook, and The Fonville Winans Cookbook.
 
 
Lemony Chicken and Rice Soup
Makes 8 cups
 
This comforting, Greek-inspired recipe is a good way to use up leftover baked chicken or turkey.
 
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup finely chopped onion
½ cup finely chopped celery
½ cup finely diced carrot
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 quarts chicken broth
½ cup raw long grain rice
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon finely minced lemon zest
2 large eggs
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
1½ cups diced or shredded cooked chicken
¼ cup chopped green onion
 
1. Add oil to a Dutch oven set over medium heat. Sauté onion, celery, and carrot until onion is soft, 7 minutes. Add garlic and cook 30 seconds.
2. Stir in broth, rice, oregano, and lemon zest and bring to a boil. Cover the pot tightly and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook, stirring occasionally, until rice is tender, about 15 minutes. 
3. Meanwhile, in a small bowl beat together the eggs, lemon juice, salt, and black pepper. When rice is completely tender, slowly dribble a cup of the hot soup into the egg mixture, the whole while whisking. Whisk the tempered egg mixture into the pot and bring to a bare simmer. (Don’t boil or the eggs will curdle.) Remove the pot from the heat, stir in the chicken and green onion, and taste for seasoning. Serve hot.
 
 
Mushroom Rice
Makes 4 side servings
 
2 tablespoons butter, divided
8 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup raw long grain rice
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1½ cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 teaspoons Creole seasoning
½ cup chopped green onion
 
1. Add 1 tablespoon butter to a large skillet that has a tight-fitting lid. Set the uncovered skillet over medium-high heat and sauté the mushrooms and onion until the mushrooms have released their liquid and the bottom of the skillet is dry. 
2. Add remaining tablespoon butter, the rice, and garlic and sauté 2 minutes. Add stock and Creole seasoning and stir to release any bits from the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Cover and cook until all liquid is absorbed and rice is tender, 15-20 minutes. (Stir once, after 10 minutes.)
3. Remove pan from the heat and let sit 10 minutes without removing cover. Stir in green onion and taste for seasoning. Serve warm. 
 
 
Crawfish Cakes
Makes 8 cakes
 
1 tablespoon butter
¼ cup minced onion
¼ cup minced bell pepper
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-pound package crawfish tails, with fat
2 large eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
 
1 teaspoon Creole seasoning
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
2 cups breadcrumbs, divided
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ cup vegetable oil
For serving: high-quality bottled dipping sauce
 
1. Melt butter in a large skillet set over medium-high heat and sauté onion, bell pepper, and jalapeno until onion is translucent. Add garlic and cook 30 seconds. Remove mixture from heat, transfer to a large bowl, and let cool 5 minutes.
2. Stir in crawfish and fat, eggs, mayonnaise, Creole seasoning, salt, and black pepper. Stir in 1 cup breadcrumbs, and flour. (If mixture seems too loose, add more breadcrumbs). Form into 8 balls, then smash them down to form round patties that are about ½ inch high.
3. Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Coat patties in remaining 1 cup breadcrumbs and fry until golden brown on both sides, about 5-7 minutes total. Serve with your favorite dipping sauce. 

Story, photos and recipes by Cynthia Nobles 

Cal and Pris Simar are making plans to do what virtually every rural family used to do when cold weather sets in — light up their backyard smokehouse. Every year the couple makes their own sausage, tasso, and beef jerky at their country home just north of Iota.

Cal is a retired educator and Pris is a retired registered nurse. The Simars learned how to smoke meat from Pris’ father, Allen Leger, a rice, sweet potato, soybean, hay, and cattle farmer whose ancestors passed the smoking skill down to him. “For all our 51 years of marriage,” Pris said, “Cal and I have been carrying on this family tradition.” 

“Before Pris and I were married I’d help my father-in-law with the smoking,” Cal said. “He taught me well. I have since taught my side of the family how to do it.”

German settlers first brought the art of smoking meat to Louisiana. The Cajun French quickly adopted this preservation technique and over time have spectacularly perfected it. (The French-founded City of Ville Platte even brags that it is the ‘Smoked Meat Capital of the World’).

Although southwest Louisiana is chockablock full of fantastic smoked meat stores, there are still many families like the Simars who smoke their own meat.  

The Simars’ 8x8-foot smokehouse is 15 feet high. It features a window that had been laying around in their garage, and which comes in handy for creating a draft. The walls and roof are made of tin and 2x4s. The inside has exposed rafters, an iron box on a dirt floor, and a heavenly scent that reminded me of bacon. The unassuming building sits right behind their home. 

“When we built our house in 1983, we built a small smokehouse,” Cal said, “but we quickly outgrew that one. My dad and I built our larger smokehouse in 1990. I got the Iota High School Ag Department to build the iron firebox.”

Cal’s pork sausage recipe is a tweaked version of his father-in-law’s. “I use 80 percent Boston Butt and 20 percent pork loin. I season it with salt, cayenne pepper, black pepper, and a little curing salt. For deer sausage I use 60 percent pork and 40 percent venison. The spice proportions for both sausages are a secret.”

The Simars own an electric grinder that can process 100 pounds of meat in 10 minutes, along with a giant mixer that handles 50 pounds of meat at a time. 

For stuffing, they use a large manual stuffer. “We use real pig casings,” Pris said. Natural pig casings are prized for their ability to deeply absorb smoke and develop a distinctive ‘snap.’ The Simars buy casings locally by the ‘hank,’ a measurement that will stuff about 100 pounds.

“Sometimes our son, Brandon, helps,” Pris said. “But most of the time it’s me who cleans the casings and stuffs them. Then I hand them off to Cal for smoking.”

“My favorite wood for smoking is sweet gum,” Cal said. There’s an abundance of sweet gum on a nearby farm, and that neighbor lets Cal cut down all he wants. He also occasionally uses oak and pecan. “I split the wood and let it dry for a year. When I make the fire, I start with dried wood. Then I add green wood to make smoke.”

On smoking days, Cal gets up early, hangs the meat in the smoker, lights the fire, and then drinks coffee. 

Smoking time depends on the weather and humidity. “The best days for smoking are cool and crisp,” Cal said. “It takes 5 to 6 hours for sausage to ‘take the smoke’. Tasso takes 5-6 hours, too, and jerky takes about 8 hours. In 5 hours, I have to replenish the wood about 4 times.”

When the smoking process is finished, the Simars spread their cured meat out on a large table where it cools. Then they vacuum seal it and freeze it.

Over the years the Simars have also smoked meats like brisket, turkey, and chicken, but their annual staples remain tasso and beef jerky, and their family-favorite pork sausage. “We make at least 300 pounds of sausage a year,” Cal said. “Some years it’s a lot more. One year we made 900 pounds.”

And what do two people do with all that sausage? “A lot goes to our kids,” Pris says of the couple’s 3 grown children. “And our 6 grandkids love it. Some of them won’t eat storebought sausage; they want their pop’s (grandfather’s) sausage.” The Simars also like to entertain, especially for LSU games, and friends devour much of it then.

Cal’s sausage receives so much acclaim that he has even been approached to sell it commercially.

​“But that’s not something I want to do,” he said. “My son-in-law Mike wants to learn how to smoke meat. I plan to teach him. As long as a family member keeps this going, I’m happy.”
 
 
Do you have a Louisiana agriculture story or a recipe you’d like to share? Contact me at [email protected].
 
Cynthia Nobles is the cookbook editor for LSU Press and the author/co-author of several historical cookbooks, including A Confederacy of Dunces Cookbook, The Delta Queen Cookbook, and The Fonville Winans Cookbook.
 
 
Sausage Crepes
Makes 12 - recipe by Diane Leger Cicero of Torbert
 
Crepes:
6 large eggs
2 cups whole milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Cooking spray
 
Filling:
2 pounds smoked sausage, shredded or chopped finely
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
4-8 ounces cream cheese (depending on how much you like), at room temperature
 
Topping:
1 cup sour cream
½ cup (1 stick) melted butter
 
1. Crepes: Thoroughly whisk together the eggs, milk, and vegetable oil. Set aside. Place a large non-stick skillet over medium heat and coat lightly with cooking spray. When pan is barely hot, add ¼ cup crepe batter and spread out by swirling the pan. You want an 8-inch crepe. Cook 1 minute. Flip the crepe over and cook 30 seconds.  Place cooked crepe on a towel to cool. Continue making crepes, spraying pan with oil each time. Stack cooked crepes between sheets of waxed paper.
2. Filling: In a skillet set over medium-high heat, cook the smoked sausage and onion until onion is browned. Remove from heat and drain any grease. Stir in the Cheddar cheese and cream cheese. 
3. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly oil a 9x13-inch baking pan. Place 2 tablespoons filling down the center of each crepe and roll them up. Place filled crepes seam side down in the prepared pan. Cover the pan with foil and bake 30 minutes. 
4. Topping: Combine the sour cream and melted butter. Spoon the topping over the hot crepes and bake, uncovered, 5 minutes. Remove from oven and cool 5 minutes before serving. Freezes well.
 
 
Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers
Makes 12
 
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
12 large, fresh jalapeno peppers, halved lengthwise and seeds removed
12 slices bacon, at room temperature
Toothpicks
 
Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Fill each pepper half with cream cheese. Completely wrap each filled pepper half with bacon and secure bacon ends with toothpicks. Bake until bacon is brown and crispy, 25-35 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.
 
 
Sausage Bread
Makes 1 loaf (8 servings) – recipe by Pris Simar of Iota
 
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pound smoked sausage, finely chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese, optional
1 teaspoon Creole seasoning
2 large eggs, beaten
Flour for dusting
1 (16-ounce) loaf frozen bread dough, thawed
 
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Place a large skillet over medium-high heat and cook the onion in the oil until opaque, 6-8 minutes. Add the sausage and garlic and cook 5 more minutes. Transfer mixture to a large bowl. Add the cheese and Creole seasoning to the sausage mixture and combine thoroughly. 
2.  Lightly flour a hard work surface and roll out the thawed bread dough into a 9x13-inch rectangle. Brush the beaten eggs over the dough, reserving 3 tablespoons. Evenly spread on the sausage mixture. From a long dough end, roll up jelly roll style. Pinche the edges and ends and place seam side down on the parchment-lined pan. Brush with the remaining egg.
3. Bake until golden brown, 20-30 minutes. Slice and serve.

Story, photos and recipes by Cynthia Nobles 

At peak hours, there is almost always a line waiting out the door of the new location of Scratch Farm Kitchen, a laid-back breakfast and lunch restaurant in the middle of Lafayette. Scratch is known for its fresh, “from-scratch” casual dishes made from locally-grown ingredients. The menu also includes an interesting variety of coffees, lemonades, teas, beer, seasonal cocktails, and natural and organic wines. Many Acadiana diners claim it’s their favorite place to eat, so I decided to see what all the fuss was about.
 
Scratch is owned and operated by Jamie Harson, who, at the age of 30, moved from Oregon to what was once her great-grandfather’s 18-acre farm in Duson. Harson, who was featured in a 2016 Farm & Ranch article, jumped headlong into farm life by raising chickens, meat birds, goats, and some 300 pigs.  

“So much has changed since then,” says Harson. “I began farming because I care about the quality of my food. But raising animals is hard work. So, I sold most of my livestock and veered off into the restaurant business.”

Her journey to restaurant fame began when she became a popup vendor at Lafayette’s Moncus Park. She later took the leap to operating a food truck. “For a year I sold food made from what I grew and from what I found at the farmers market,” she said. “My success in the food truck gave me the courage to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant.”

With the help of a business partner, in 2019, Harson opened the original Scratch Farm Kitchen in a 1,500-square-foot building on Garfield Street in Downtown Lafayette. Harson and her partner eventually parted ways, and within 4 years the restaurant outgrew its space. 

This past September Harson moved her staff to her new 2,600-square-foot restaurant on Johnston Street, right across the road from where her original odyssey into the restaurant business began, Moncus Park. Already, she is serving four times what she did at her old location.

Scratch’s freshly-made, constantly-changing menu prompts diners to customize their orders by choosing different elements of classic comfort foods. For instance, a “Comfort Bowl” includes seasonal choices of beans, rice, eggs, cheeses, vegetables, and proteins, such as chicken, beef patty, pulled pork, bacon, and tofu. The “Scratch Burger” can be made with beef or pork, or vegetarian or vegan. The popular “Pretty Plate” is a mosaic of choices of salad, a protein, and sides. Sides include familiar favorites such as hash browns, sweet potatoes, grilled broccoli, grits, lima beans, and pickled beets. 

Scratch’s kitchen gladly accommodates dietary restrictions. Many foods are vegetarian and vegan, as well as organic and gluten-free. Harson even offers a gluten-free gumbo made with a rice flour roux.
True to her restaurant’s name, none of what Harson serves comes out of a box or can. “The only thing I buy frozen,” she says, “is lima beans. I have to keep it on the menu year-round, and they’re impossible to get off-season.” 

Harson’s “no-processed” rule extends to condiments. “I make my own mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, and jams” she says. “I buy bushels of hot peppers from a farmer right outside Lafayette and turn that into hot sauce. My hot sauce is so popular that customers come in and buy it by the jarful.”

Harson hopes to eventually bottle and sell her signature condiments. But right now, she’s busy setting menus, cooking, and sourcing as many Louisiana ingredients as possible. 

Her duck eggs come from St. Francisville. Pork comes from a farmer in Alexandria, and poultry is sourced from DeRidder. Naturally, she buys tons of produce from the Moncus Farmers Market. “And we thankfully now have JV Foods,” she says of the New Orleans-based wholesale food distributor and online farmers market, which offers local products to chefs and restaurants. 

And why does Harson think Scratch is so popular? “I think our restaurant is a cult,” she says with a laugh. “Or maybe it’s because I pride myself on honest food and creativity. I have a love for farming and farmers. I understand what they go through. I could talk to them all day long.”

After savoring my first bite of Scratch’s generously-sized “Boudini,” a griddle biscuit topped with boudin, cheese, egg, pesto, kimchi, and Harson’s fantastic mayonnaise, I understood why the restaurant’s line is always long. You can taste the freshness for yourself at Scratch Farm Kitchen, 2918 Johnston Street, Lafayette. Phone: 337-295-4769. Open Tuesday-Saturday, 8:00-2:00. They don’t take reservations, so get there early! 
 

Do you have a Louisiana agriculture story or a recipe you’d like to share? Contact me at [email protected].
 
Cynthia Nobles is the cookbook editor for LSU Press and the author/co-author of several historical cookbooks, including A Confederacy of Dunces Cookbook, The Delta Queen Cookbook, and The Fonville Winans Cookbook.
 
 
 Savory Smashed Sweet Potatoes
Makes 6 servings
 
This dish is a good change from the traditional candied sweet potatoes usually served at Thanksgiving. I like to make it on the chunky side. 
 
3 pounds whole sweet potatoes
4 tablespoons butter or olive oil
1-2 jalapeno peppers (depending on your preferred heat level), minced
1 tablespoon finely minced orange zest
¼ cup orange juice
¼ cup minced cilantro or parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
⅓ cup chopped pecans
 
1. Prick sweet potatoes all over and bake at 375°F on a foil-lined cookie sheet until tender and juices run from the fork holes. Remove from the oven and peel when cool enough to handle. (Sweet potatoes can be baked a day ahead.)
2. Melt butter completely in a large saucepan set over medium heat. Toss in minced pepper and orange zest and cook 15 seconds. Vigorously stir in peeled sweet potatoes and orange juice. For smoother sweet potatoes, mash with a potato masher. For a puree, use a blender. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro, salt, and pepper. 
3. Transfer to a serving bowl and sprinkle on the pecans. Serve warm.  
 
 
Beets with Mint and Onion
Makes 4 servings.
 
1½ pounds fresh beets, with 1 inch of stem attached to roots
¼ cup white balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon white vinegar
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon honey
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ sweet onion, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons minced fresh mint
 
1. Set a steamer basket in a saucepan with 2 inches simmering water. Add beets and cover and steam until tender when pierced with a fork, 30-45 minutes. Chop off stems and peel skins off roots. Cut roots into ¼-inch slices.
2. In a medium bowl, make dressing by whisking together vinegars, olive oil, honey, salt, and pepper. Stir in onion.
3. Add warm beets and mint to dressing and toss. Serve warm or at room temperature.
 
 
Goddess Mayonnaise or Salad Dressing
Makes 1 cup mayonnaise, or 1⅓ cups dressing
 
Adapted from a recipe by Jamie Harson of Scratch Farm Kitchen. Jamie uses whatever herbs are available, and so can you. She makes large batches in a food processor, but for this downsized recipe, an immersion blender in a glass jar is even easier.
 
1 large egg
1 tablespoon lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon whole grain mustard (optional)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup grapeseed oil
1 teaspoon minced fresh basil
1 teaspoon minced fresh green onion
1 teaspoon minced fresh mint
1 teaspoon minced fresh holy basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
⅓ teaspoon salt
Dash tamari or soy sauce
⅓ cup sour cream (if making salad dressing)
 
1. In a wide-mouthed pint glass jar, add the egg, then the lemon juice, mustard, and garlic. Pour on the oil and let it sit 15 seconds.
2. Slowly place an immersion blender into the jar and let the head touch the bottom. Without moving the blender stick or lifting it, turn the blender to high speed and process until mayonnaise forms, about 15 seconds. 
3. Slowly lift the blender and process until the oil has blended in and emulsified. Add the herbs, salt, and soy sauce and blend a few seconds.
4. If making salad dressing, stir in the sour cream. Put the lid on the top of the jar and refrigerate up to 1 week.
  
 
Refrigerator Berry Jam
Makes 2 pints
 
7 cups fresh or frozen mulberries, blackberries, blueberries, or coarsely chopped strawberries
5 cups sugar
4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 clean pint jars with lids
 
1. In a large, heavy-bottomed Dutch oven or saucepan set over medium-high heat, stir together the berries, sugar, and lemon juice. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil, the whole while mashing berries with a potato masher or a fork.
2. Continue cooking, uncovered and stirring often, until the mixture reads 220°F on a quick-read thermometer. For softer jam, cook to 217°F. You can also drop a dab of jam on a cold plate and see if the jam wiggles when shaken. Takes about 20 minutes. (Be careful not to overcook, or it will get hard when cold.)
4. Immediately remove the pot from the heat and spoon the jam into the jars and cover. Cool at room temperature, then refrigerate up to 1 month.

Story, photos and recipes by Cynthia Nobles ​

When purple bird droppings begin appearing on my tomato plants, I know that the mulberries are ripe. A gnarly-trunked mulberry tree grows down a gravel road by my house, and every spring it produces clusters of dark purple berries that ooze with juice.
            
Spring is also prime time for searching along the fence in a nearby field for wild dewberries, which is not the same as blackberries, which ripen along another field a few weeks later.  
            
Throughout the years that I’ve strolled the pastures and woods on my family’s farm, I’ve always kept an eye out for wild edibles. John Nettles, an experienced forager and naturalist from Baton Rouge, shares my curiosity and love of dining on the unexpected.
            
John works as a digital marketer, but he spends his spare time running Slowhike Company, through which he conducts foraging walks throughout rural south Louisiana. “In college I worked in lots of restaurants,” he told me. “My interest in cooking led me to learn about what wild foods grow in Louisiana’s forests.” 

​I recently caught up with John at a wooded area outside Baton Rouge. A few yards from our cars he bent over and picked up a small cluster of pink flowers. The delicate flowers grew on square stems surrounded by saw-toothed, heart-shaped leaves. I’d seen that plant all my life and always thought it was nothing more than a weed. 

“This is dead nettle,” John said. “It’s a member of the mint family.” Turns out that the plant’s leaves are edible and highly nutritious. They’re somewhat bitter, but are good in salads and scrambled eggs, and are often brewed to make a tea that supposedly stops spring allergies. 

A few steps away near a small pond stood a “weed’ that I definitely recognized, and always mowed down — a thistle. “Lots of people in south Louisiana call this a chadron,” John said, referring to the French word for thistle. “They taste like sweet celery. Pick them while they’re young, while they don’t have flowers yet.” Peel the stalk of the thistle and eat it raw, sauteed, or pickled.  

Ten feet into the woods and John pointed out another small flower, this one with five dark purple petals and heart-shaped leaves. “It’s a wild violet,” he said. “The whole thing is edible.” Wild violet leaves are good in salads and to make tea. The flowers are used for garnishes, in salads, and to make jelly. 

We meandered down a path that wound through oak and native pecan trees. In a sunny clearing John found a stand of wood sorrel, a plant that looked like tall clover. With their tart, lemony flavor, fresh wood sorrel leaves and flowers are good in salads and cooked. 

Another tasty-looking plant we stumbled on were tiny Indian strawberries. He then explained that the may apple’s leaves are not edible, but that the plant’s yellow, soft, fully ripened fruit tastes like potato. 

We turned around, heading out the woods and discussed even more wild edibles that grow in Louisiana. “Dandelion leaves are full of vitamins A and C,” he said. “Almost everybody who grew up in the country has a story about wild onions, muscadines, and wild persimmons. And we all ate honeysuckle nectar as kids.” We also talked about the mango-like fruit of the pawpaw tree, and making cherry bounce from wild black cherries and whiskey.

We came across a yaupon holly. “This shrub was the only caffeine-producing plant Native Americans had,” John said, picking a few of the plant’s small oval leaves. “Don’t eat the berries, they’re poisonous. But you can dry the leaves and make a tea. It’ll have as much caffeine as green tea.”
 
A few feet away John bent down and excitedly pointed out a decaying log and a group of slightly shriveled oyster mushrooms peeking up from the log’s backside. “They’re a little dessicated,” John said, referring to their dryness. “But you can certainly eat them.”

Other edible mushrooms common in Louisiana forests are chanterelles, morels, wood ear, and the stunningly shaggy-spined lion’s mane. “Mushrooms thrive in Louisiana’s warm, humid climate. They grow here during the summer and fall,” John says. “But remember that many varieties are poisonous. Always get two experts to identify a mushroom before you eat it.”

Our walk ended with John cautioning that any consumable plant harvested from the wild must not have been sprayed with chemicals, and should always be properly identified. He’ll be happy to help anyone determine if their bounty is edible. He’ll also be glad to take you on a tour where wild and delicious things grow. Just text him at 225-205-5515, or email him at [email protected]. 
        

Do you have a Louisiana agriculture story or a recipe you’d like to share? Contact me at [email protected].
 

Cynthia Nobles is the cookbook editor for LSU Press and the author/co-author of several historical cookbooks, including A Confederacy of Dunces Cookbook, The Delta Queen Cookbook, and The Fonville Winans Cookbook.


Sauteed Chadron (Thistle)
Makes 2 servings
 
The hollow stalks of the upright, thorny thistle (sticker bush) that grows along our roads and ditches was an important vegetable for Louisiana’s early Acadians. Peeled young stalks are good raw or cooked. (It’s always a good idea to work with heavy gloves when handling thistle.)
 
5 wild thistle stalks (young plants are best)
2 tablespoons butter
Salt and pepper
 
1. Use a sharp knife to cut off the thorny leaves from the stalks. Scrub the stalks thoroughly, then carefully slice off the outer skin. Cut stalks into ¼-inch slices.
2. Heat butter in a skillet set over medium high heat until melted and hot. Add sliced thistle and sauté until thoroughly heated through and beginning to brown, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve hot.  
 
 
Pasta with Lion’s Mane Mushrooms
Makes 2 servings
 
The lion’s mane mushroom is large, white, and shaggy, and it soaks up sauces beautifully. Its taste is sweet and savory and resembles seafood. If you can’t find lion’s mane in the wild, a few farmers’ markets and grocery stores carry it fresh, along with other hard-to-find mushrooms like morels, chanterelles, and wood ear, which are all good in this recipe.
 
2 cups uncooked spiral or penne pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups chopped fresh tomato
½ cup seafood or chicken stock
Salt, black pepper, and cayenne
2 tablespoons heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter
½ pound fresh lion’s mane mushrooms, separated into small pieces
 
1. Start preparing pasta according to package directions. While pasta is cooking, heat oil in a saucepan set over medium heat and cook the onion until translucent, about 5 minutes. To the onion, add garlic and sauté 30 seconds. Add tomato and stock, along with salt, black pepper, and cayenne to taste. Cook until tomatoes are completely soft, 10-15 minutes.
2. Using a regular or immersion blender, carefully puree the tomato mixture. Return to the saucepan and stir in the cream. Bring to a simmer, then remove from heat.
3. Melt the butter in a small skillet set over medium-high heat. Toss in the lion’s mane and cook until tender and brown on the edges, 3-5 minutes. Add the lion’s mane to the sauce and bring to a simmer. Combine the sauce and the cooked pasta. Serve hot.


Mulberry or Blackberry Tart
Makes 1 (10-inch) tart
 
To take off the notoriously suborn mulberry stems, freeze the berries, then snap the stems right off. 
 
1 unbaked pie crust, homemade or frozen and defrosted
5 cups mulberries or blackberries, fresh or frozen
1¼  cups sugar
Cornstarch (4 tablespoons for fresh mulberries, 5 tablespoons for frozen)
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
 
1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 425°F. Between 2 floured sheets of wax paper, roll out the dough into a 13-inch circle. Fit the dough into the bottom and sides of a 10-inch tart pan. Prick the bottom of the shell all over with a fork. Line the shell with foil and fill it with raw rice or pie weights. Bake 12 minutes. Remove the rice and foil and bake until light brown, another 6 or so minutes. Remove to a wire rack while making the filling.
3. Heat the oven to 375°F. Put the tart pan with the partially baked crust on a foil-lined baking sheet. To make filling, in a large saucepan, combine mulberries, sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice. Stirring constantly, bring to a boil over medium heat. Turn heat to medium low and cook until thick like jam, about 5 minutes.
4. Pour hot filling into the crust and bake until bubbly, about 20-25 minutes. Cool completely before serving.
 
 
Dandelion Tea
Makes 1 cup
 
Every part of the incredibly nutritious dandelion is edible. Leaves can be used in salads, and roots can be roasted and ground and used as a coffee substitute. Dandelion tea is a diuretic, and it also interacts with some medications, so check with your doctor before consuming this tea.
 
½ cup loosely packed yellow dandelion petals (not the bitter green part)
1 cup boiling water
 
Rinse the petals well and place them in a tea ball. Place the ball in a cup, cover it, and let steep 10 minutes. Remove the tea ball and drink the tea hot or over ice. 

Story, photos and recipes by Cynthia Nobles 

Every June and July cars line up to buy some of the sweetest corn around at Mathews Produce in Alexandria. Along with 4 acres of assorted summer produce, Jeremy and Haley Mathews plant 12 acres of “super sweet corn.” Their squash, zucchini, eggplant, and carefully grown tomatoes are certainly top-notch. But it’s the young couple’s tender corn that has customers jockeying for a place in line as early as 6:30 a.m.
            
Haley, a schoolteacher, sells produce during summer vacation from a stand right by the Mathews’ home. This allows her to keep an eye on their 1- and 2-year-old girls, who “love getting dirty.” The Mathews’ also sell to 4 different farmers’ markets in the central Louisiana area, and to a few local restaurants, like the popular Tunk’s. The bulk, however, is sold from their shaded yard.
            
The Mathews’ house originally belonged to Jeremy’s grandfather, who started growing sweet corn about 12 years ago. “Grandpa grew it as a project for us kids,” Jeremy said. “Selling corn taught us responsibility and how to make a little money.”
            
Along with his brother and father, Jeremy also works some 4,000 acres on a farm started by his great-grandfather. The Mathews family grows soybeans, cotton, and field corn. Sweet corn differs from field corn, or dent corn, in that it has a higher sugar content and is picked in the immature milk stage, before the sugar turns to starch. Sweet corn plants are also much shorter. Although the U.S. is the number one producer of sweet corn, less than 1 percent of the corn our farmers grow is sweet corn. 
            
To have sweet corn available as long as possible, Jeremey staggers planting. “We do 10 different plantings,” he said. “About 1½ acres at a time on 16-24 rows. And it’s all bi-color.” Sweet corn types are either yellow, white, or a “bi-color” of yellow and white. He grinned as he refused to tell me his “secret” bi-color hybrid.
            
​He waits to plant until the first week of March. “Can’t risk a late freeze,” Jeremy said. He fertilizes once, when the plants are 5-6 inches tall.

​Maturity is about 74 days, as opposed to 110-115 days for field corn. “And our sweet corn is not Roundup ready or Bt,” Jeremy says. “We do spray some preventative herbicides to keep grass and weeds off. Sometimes a hoe crew and I physically end up pulling weeds.” Irrigation for his produce comes from drip, while corn is watered by poly pipe irrigation.

A few pests are hogs, raccoons, and coyotes, which strip whole ears and leave them in a pile. “Our biggest problem by far,” Jeremy said, “is blackbirds. They open shucks up and peck kernels 3 inches down the ear.”

He took me to a field that was almost 80 percent tasseled and handed me a cob of just-picked corn. I took a bite of the tender, milky kernels and was surprised by their sweetness. I could have eaten the whole thing raw.

“The first planting is ready about the first week of June,” Jeremy said. “We have a 2 or -3-day window before the kernels turn hard. Production goes on until about mid-July.” 

The rest of their produce is harvested and sold throughout the summer.” When fall is around the corner, Jeremy plants sunflowers in their produce acreage. “I take the winter off,” he said. “We like to hunt doves.” 

Since the Mathews’ are corn experts, I asked them their favorite way of cooking their widely-acclaimed product and how they preserve an abundance. “I usually blanch, cut off the kernels, and freeze in a Ziploc,” Haley said. “And my favorite recipe is just plain old corn and bacon.”

Jeremy nodded in agreement about the corn and bacon. Then he showed me a stack of grocery-sized brown paper bags. “That’s what we sell corn in. Some people just roll the top down and put the whole bag of corn in the freezer. Unshucked corn lasts frozen 8 months. And you can microwave it frozen and in the shuck.”  

To find out availability of Haley and Jeremy’s sweet corn or any variety of freshly-picked summer vegetables, call Mathews Produce at 318-623-2057. Address: 6389 Bayou Rapides Road, Alexandria. Facebook: Mathews Super Sweet Corn
             

Do you have a Louisiana agriculture story or a recipe you’d like to share? Contact me at [email protected].
 
Cynthia Nobles is the cookbook editor for LSU Press and the author/co-author of several historical cookbooks, including A Confederacy of Dunces Cookbook, The Delta Queen Cookbook, and The Fonville Winans Cookbook.
 
 
Baked Corn on the Cob
Makes 4 servings
 
4 large ears sweet corn, with husks
½ stick butter, softened
½ teaspoon garlic salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
 
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Peel back corn husks, but leave them attached to the base of the cob. Remove corn silks. 
2. Combine butter, garlic salt, and black pepper and rub on corn kernels. Fold husks back over buttered corn. Place corn in husks directly on the top oven rack. Roast until corn kernels are soft and the husks are brown, about 30 minutes. To make “handles” for picking up the corn, peel husks back but leave them on the base of the cobs. 
 
 
 
 
Corn and Bean Salad
Makes 6 servings
 
6 ears fresh sweet corn, husks and silks removed
⅓ cup apple cider vinegar
Juice of 1 lime
2 tablespoons olive oil
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon hot sauce
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, garbanzo beans, or kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 large red bell pepper, chopped 
¾ cup minced red onion
½ cup chopped green onion
 
1. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the ears of corn and cook 3 minutes. When cool enough to handle, cut kernels from the cob.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the vinegar, lime juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, and hot sauce. Stir in the corn kernels, beans, bell pepper, onion, and green onion. Refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 24 hours. Stir well before serving.
 
 
Haley Mathews’ Skillet Corn and Bacon
Makes 8 servings
 
Although she occasionally adds seasonings like onion, parsley, green onions, or salt, Haley Mathews prefers preparing this dish simply, with only corn and bacon. She also stresses that it is important to cook it in a cast iron skillet. 
 
6 strips thick-cut bacon, cut into ½-inch pieces
6 very fresh ears of corn, shucked and kernels cut off the cob
 
Place a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Fry bacon until barely crisp. Add corn and stir constantly until kernels are just cooked through, about 5-8 minutes. Serve hot.
 
 
 
Sweet Corn Ice Cream
Makes 1 quart
 
Sounds crazy doesn’t it! But ice cream made with fresh sweet corn is delicious.
 
4 ears fresh sweet corn, shucked and silks removed
2 cups whole milk
4 extra large egg yolks
1 cup sugar
1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
 
1. Cut kernels of corn off the cobs. Place corn kernels and whole milk in into a large saucepan set over medium heat and stir constantly until mixture starts simmering around the edges. Cover the saucepan and set aside 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a medium-sized bowl, stir together the egg yolks and sugar. Bring the corn mixture back to just a simmer. Whisk a cup of the hot mixture into the egg mixture. Whisk all of egg mixture into the hot milk in the pan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Strain into a bowl and discard the solids.
3. Whisk in evaporated milk, heavy cream, and vanilla. Refrigerate custard until completely cool. Freeze mixture in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer instructions.

Story, photos and recipes by Cynthia Nobles 

Almost every summer I take a quick road trip up to Ruston. The official reason is to visit the final resting places of relatives. It is no coincidence, however, that my annual pilgrimage is always at the beginning of June, when it’s time for Ruston’s Annual Peach Festival. That’s also when the peaches are ripe at the iconic Mitcham Farms.

Ask just about any peach aficionado which fruits have the most flavor, and they will emphatically say that the tastiest come from Ruston. The peaches from this north Louisiana region are typically large and deep-colored. They ooze with juice and smell like a floral perfume. 

The soil around the small city and throughout Lincoln Parish contains relatively high amounts of iron ore, which some believe adds to peach flavor. The area’s hills roll gently, and that aids in temperature regulation and drainage. Ruston is also far enough north to provide the required 900-1100 chill hours necessary for high peach quality.  

On many a June morning I have rushed to Mitcham Farms at 8:00 a.m., hoping to snatch a bushel or two of freshly-picked peaches. On my last trip, I also bought freshly-churned peach ice cream at the farm’s store. And I talked peaches with the farm’s owner, Joe Mitcham.

​Mitcham Farms is just north of Ruston, and is one of Louisiana’s largest peach farms. It began in 1946, when Mitcham’s school-teacher parents bought 300 acres of a cotton plantation for $38 per acre. His father planted the first peach trees in 1947. 

Today, Mitcham only plants around 15 acres, which is miniscule compared to the 340 acres his family planted back in the orchard’s heyday, in the 1970s-80s.

“There used to be over 1,000 acres of orchards in Lincoln Parish,” Mitcham says. “Now we’re only a handful of small-acreage farmers.” He lays some of the decline’s blame on production costs and the lack of preferred nursery stock. Then there’s huge competition from big growers in Georgia and California. 

“And unseasonal cold snaps keep killing everybody’s tender buds,” Mitcham says. He personally solved that problem in the year 2000, when he purchased 3, two-bladed wind turbine machines that, within their reach, keep temperatures 5 degrees warmer.

“By far, today’s biggest problem,” Mitcham says, “is the lack of chemicals to combat armillaria.” The fungal disease comes from the soil and attacks deep in the tree root systems. Once symptoms of rot appear, it is almost impossible to treat.

Despite his challenges, Mitcham produces succulent peaches from some 1,300 healthy trees that are pruned to 8 feet tall. One mature tree typically produces 6 (25-pound) boxes of fruit. 

Mitcham’s peaches are picked by hand. With guidance from seasonal workers, just-ripe fruit is run through a conveyer system that washes, defuzzes, grades, and sorts. Large boxes are packed by machine. Gift boxes of large, perfect peaches are packed by hand. “We sell gift boxes mostly to corporate businesses for client gifts,” Mitcham says. “And that provides most of our income.”  

Ruston’s peach season typically runs from late May through the first weeks of August. Some early ripening varieties Mitcham grows are Carored, Desiree, and the richly sweet Flavor Rich. In mid-summer he sells Flavor Crest, Blaze Prince, and Fire Prince. A few of his late-season peaches are Red Globe, July Prince, August Prince, and Ruston Red, a large, sweet cling free developed by LSU.

Even though the number of Ruston’s peach growers is shrinking, consumer desire for the area’s unique crop is as robust as ever. This craving is evident by the long lines at Mitcham’s processing facility during the summer mornings they are open.

​“We stopped selling wholesale years ago,” Mitcham says. “So we have plenty of peaches for locals. But we can only pick so many in one day. You just have to get here early!”

With a bushel of Carored clingstone peaches in my back seat, I drove toward Downtown Ruston, where the Peach Festival was in full swing. I stopped to watch the parade then found booths of vendors that sold things like woodworks, unique home décor, handmade fish baits, preserves, bakery treats . . . and peach ice cream. 

I hopped back into my car, which was filled with the flowery scent of my recently purchased Mitcham Farms clingstones. I couldn’t wait, so I munched on a peach right then. The fruit’s flavor was like nectar, the way a peach should taste. Sticky juice snaked down my arm, but I didn’t care.  

You can visit Mitcham Farms at 1926 Mitcham Orchard Road, Ruston, Louisiana, 71270, phone: 318-255-3409. This year, Ruston’s Louisiana Peach Festival will be held on Saturday, June 3.
 
                                     
Do you have a Louisiana agriculture story or a recipe you’d like to share? Contact me at [email protected]
 
Cynthia Nobles is the cookbook editor for LSU Press and the author/co-author of several historical cookbooks, including A Confederacy of Dunces Cookbook, The Delta Queen Cookbook, The Jay Ducote Cookbook, and The Fonville Winans Cookbook.
 
 
Peach Crisp
Makes 6 servings
 
4 cups thinly sliced, unpeeled peaches, or 2 (16-ounce) cans sliced peaches, drained 
¼ cup white sugar
¼ cup light brown sugar
1½ teaspoons cornstarch
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon almond extract
 
Topping:
½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup old-fashioned rolled oats
½ cup light brown sugar
4 tablespoons salted butter, softened
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
 
For serving: Vanilla ice cream
 
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray the insides of an 8x8-inch baking pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl, stir together drained peaches, white sugar, brown sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, and almond extract. Pour peach mixture evenly into prepared pan.
2. Add all topping ingredients to a large bowl. Using a fork or your fingers, work the mixture until it’s well combined and resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle topping evenly over the peaches. Bake until golden brown and bubbly, about 30-35 minutes. Cool at least 15 minutes before serving. Top with vanilla ice cream.
 
 
Whole Wheat Peach and Walnut Muffins
Makes 12 standard-sized muffins
 
Buttermilk, olive oil, and juicy peach chunks make this bakery-style muffin incredibly tender.
 
1½ cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon ground cloves, allspice, or pumpkin spice
½ teaspoon iodized salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
⅔ cup buttermilk
⅓ cup olive oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
1½ cups peeled, chopped peaches, in ½-inch dice
1 cup chopped walnuts
 
Topping:
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground allspice
 
1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line the cups of a standard-sized muffin tin with paper liners. To prevent the tops from sticking to the pan, lightly spray the pan top around the liners with cooking spray. 
2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Stir in the sugar, eggs, buttermilk, olive oil, vanilla, and almond extract. When blended well, stir in the peaches and walnuts.
3. In a small bowl, combine the topping ingredients. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin. Cups should be almost full to the top. Sprinkle each with the topping. Bake until golden brown, about 18-20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and serve warm. Keeps in an airtight container at room temperature 3 days.  
 
 
Peach Ice Cream
Makes 2 quarts (Adapted from Mitcham Farms Peach Cookbook)
 
2 pounds fresh, slightly overripe peaches (about 6-8 medium), stones removed
2 cups white sugar
Juice from half a fresh lemon
2 cups heavy whipping cream, very cold
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
 
1. Puree the peaches. (You should have 3-4 cups.) Put the puree in a large bowl. Stir in sugar and lemon juice. Stir in the cream and vanilla. 
2. Pour into an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s directions.
 
 
Peach Salsa
Makes about 3 cups
 
Good as a dip with tortillas, and also on grilled fish and pork. 
 
4 large peaches, stones removed and diced
1 large ripe tomato, seeds removed and diced
¼ cup minced red onion
2 tablespoons minced cilantro
1 tablespoon finely minced jalapeno pepper
1 clove garlic, finely minced
2 tablespoons white vinegar
Juice from 1 lime
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cumin
 
Combine all ingredients in a bowl. For best flavor, refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving.

Story, photos and recipes by Cynthia Nobles

Does the high price of eggs have you clucking? Maybe you should consider what many inflation-shocked consumers are doing, raising a small flock of chickens. 

Chicken coops used to be a normal part of a Louisiana farm landscape. This ubiquitous backyard structure began disappearing in the mid-1900s, when advances in chicken breeding spawned commercial production powerhouses. 
 
Then came the 1980s natural food movement, and the recent covid shortages, higher food prices, and an outbreak of avian bird flu. Lo and behold, egg-laying chickens have once again become a hot commodity. Even residents of our state’s large cities have been getting in on the chicken-raising act.

If you want to raise chickens from eggs, you must first have fertile eggs. You can actually buy fertile eggs online, or ask a friend with roosters to sell you some. For a successful hatch you’ll need an incubator. The eggs must be “set” at the right temperature and humidity, and turned 3-5 times a day until day 18. Chicks typically hatch at day 21. 

Landry’s Feed Store in Crowley sells hatched baby chicks. “During the last six months I’ve seen a much larger interest in raising chickens,” says store manager, Ken Landry. Some of the most popular egg-laying breeds Landry’s sells are Rhode Island Reds, Barred Plymouth Rock, White Leghorn, Buff Orpington, Golden Sexlink, and Easter Eggers, a hybrid whose eggshells can come out of the chicken blue, green, brown, olive, or pink. Landry’s also sells the slightly less productive but more showy variety call Silver Laced Wyandotte, as well as other exotics. 

“We order chicks and receive them when they’re two days old,” Landry says. “Just remember, when you buy them that young, you have to raise them until they’re old enough to lay.” 

​The prime period for nurturing chicks to adulthood is mid-February through May. From chick to egg-laying hen takes 16-28 weeks, depending on breed. Getting a chick to that stage involves an investment in a brooder, which is a container to keep the chicks safe. You also need heat lamps, litter, and a feeder and drinker. 

“Chicks definitely need special feed and supplements,” Landry says. They can be prone to maladies such as the gut disease coccidiosis, as well as vitamin deficits, leg problems, feather picking, and deformed beaks. You also have to remove poop buildup from the brooder vent daily, or your chicks can succumb to the uncomfortable-sounding disease called pasty butt, which develops from too much heat. And aside from the sexlink hybrid, it's hard to tell a hen from a rooster in young chicks. 

Your best bet for finding mature hens is to locate a nearby farmer who has a flock. Full-grown chickens thrive best in a secure coop that opens to the outdoors and a fenced area known as a chicken-run. “Hens also need special feeds, as well as occasional supplements of vitamins and electrolytes,” say Landry. “You also have to watch for evidence of worms. If the egg shells are soft, you need something to harden them, like ground oyster shells.”

Obviously, raising chickens requires a steep learning curve. And although it seems like an economically sound step to take, according to my sister Judy Burton and her husband, James, the savings aspect of raising chickens for eggs might be overblown. 

These relatives live a short distance down my rural Acadia Parish highway, and a few months ago James bought six pullets, the term for a teenage female. The hens are finally laying a few dozen eggs a week, but James tells me that the cost of feed, fencing for a chicken-run, and a chicken coop “sure ain’t chicken scratch.” 

Then there’s the commitment of time. Hens need physical attention two times a day. In the morning they should be let out to peck in the grass. At dusk, they need to be penned and locked back up. 

When Judy and James recently went on vacation, I was assigned the daily tasks of getting their “girls” in and out of the coop. This hen-sitting duty was surprisingly stressful, mainly because Henrietta, a friendly Rhode Island Red, had recently been decapitated in broad daylight by a mink that somehow squeezed through the chicken-run fence. Fortunately, on my watch the remaining five hens survived. 

Even though raising hens requires a little patience and discipline, there are unexpected perks. Aside from laying eggs, they provide free fertilizer. Since chickens are omnivores, they eat table scraps, as well as weeds, grubs, bugs, and other pests. Chickens are also a source of entertainment, as they are for my sister’s three-year-old granddaughter, Madeline, who likes throwing them treats, and who excitedly checks the nests for eggs every day. 

Not surprisingly, James and Judy’s chickens have become part of their family. And that brings up another problem. Chickens lay best for only 2-4 years, but they live from 5-10 years. Some chicken owners have no problem relegating older hens to the gumbo pot. But I do not fear that fate for the chickens down the road — Judy has already assured me that her hens will spend retirement as pets.      
 
 
​Do you have a Louisiana agriculture story or a recipe you’d like to share? Contact me at [email protected].
 
Cynthia Nobles is the cookbook editor for LSU Press and the author/co-author of several historical cookbooks, including A Confederacy of Dunces Cookbook, The Delta Queen Cookbook, and The Fonville Winans Cookbook.
            
 
 
Deviled Eggs
Makes 12 
 
6 large eggs
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons sour cream
¼ teaspoon ground dry mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon finely minced red onion
2 teaspoons minced green onion, tops only
Garnish of your choice, such as paprika, minced red bell pepper, chives, thinly sliced pickled jalapeno, or even caviar!
 
1. In a large saucepan, add eggs and top with enough water so it covers them by at least 1 inch. Over high heat, bring water to a boil, boil 1 minute and remove pan from heat. Cover pan and let eggs sit 12 minutes. Run eggs under cold water while peeling.
2. Slice eggs in half crosswise, remove yolks to a bowl, and reserve egg white halves. Mash yolks with a fork and stir in mayonnaise, sour cream, mustard, salt, and pepper. Stir in red onion and green onion. Spoon mixture into egg white halves. Cover and chill 30 minutes to 8 hours. Garnish just before serving. 
 
 
 
Pickled Eggs
Makes 12 
 
1 dozen hard-boiled large eggs, peeled
2 cups white vinegar
½ cup water
¼ cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
8 black peppercorns
2 peeled garlic cloves
1 tablespoon whole pickling spice
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
 
1. Sterilize a quart jar and lids. Place boiled eggs in jar, making sure there’s at least 1 inch of space from neck of jar.
2. In a medium saucepan, bring vinegar, water, sugar, salt, black peppercorns, garlic, pickling spice and red pepper flakes to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. 
3. Remove pickling liquid from heat and pour over eggs in jar, making sure all egg surfaces are completely covered. Place lid on jar and refrigerate immediately. Refrigerate 2 weeks. Consume within a month and always keep refrigerated.
 
 
Scotch Eggs
Makes 8 (Recipe is by Melinda Winans of Baton Rouge)
 
Common in British supermarkets and convenience stores, these sausage-coated boiled eggs are a great finger food for parties or with a salad for a light lunch.
 
1 pound lean ground pork sausage
2 raw eggs, in separate bowls and each beaten
½ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon dried dill
8 hard-boiled eggs, peeled
¾ cup fine bread crumbs
For serving: English Hot Mustard, or any mustard
 
1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Mix sausage with 1 raw egg and divide into 8 parts. Flatten each portion into a round. 
2. Mix flour and dill and lightly coat boiled eggs with seasoned flour. Shape a portion of the sausage completely around each coated egg.
3. Roll each sausage-encased egg in the remaining beaten egg and then in bread crumbs. Press crumbs gently into the sausage.
4. Bake eggs on a rack in a shallow pan until golden brown, 25 to 35 minutes. Cool eggs completely and slice into quarters. Serve with mustard. Can be made ahead and refrigerated until ready to cut.
 
 
Egg, Chili, Sausage, and Potato Breakfast Casserole
Makes 8 servings 
 
This make-ahead dish can be assembled the night before it’s baked.
 
1 (28-ounce) bag frozen, shredded hashbrowns or mini tater tots, thawed
1 pound spicy bulk sausage, cooked, crumbled, and drained
2½ cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese, divided
½ cup finely chopped onion
1 bell pepper, finely chopped
1 (4-ounce) can chopped green chilis, drained 
2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
8 large eggs
1½ cups whole milk
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
 
1. If baking immediately, preheat oven to 350°F. In either case, grease a 9x13-inch baking pan. In a very large bowl, gently mix together the hashbrowns, cooked sausage, 2 cups cheese, onion, bell pepper, green chilis, and cilantro. Spread evenly into the baking pan. 
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, cumin, salt, and black pepper. Pour the egg mixture over the hashbrown mixture. Sprinkle on the remaining ½ cup cheese. (If assembling the night before baking, at this point cover the casserole with aluminum foil and refrigerate.) 
3. Bake the casserole, uncovered, until the center is set, 55-65 minutes. If refrigerated unbaked, remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before putting in the hot oven and allow an extra 10 minutes baking time.