Cajuns, Creoles, and Tabasco Sauce

Avery Island, Louisiana is the home of world-famous Tabasco sauce and the McIlhennys. Avery Island is a very special and unique location in its own right, having been transformed into a wonderful botanical treasure and bird refuge. Their website shows how Tabasco sauce is made. Also, their website does a pretty good job of defining Cajuns and Creoles, and explaining the essential differences between these two cultures that so greatly impact southern Louisiana. It is interesting to realize some common names down here are not Acadian in origin, speaking to the influences of French Creole, Spanish, German, and other early settlers.

Passing of a couple of giants

A prominant member of our Church died, who was widely respected in the community. He was a self-made man, in his heyday, had a streak of flamboyancy about him that was referred to during his funeral service. He died from mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer of the lungs associated with exposure to asbestos at the workplace. His great qualities, particularly relating to his employment in the oil industry, included absolute loyalty and integrity, strong sense of fairness, encouraging those starting out in the companies he worked for, and not speaking ill of anyone. It made me stop and think what people might say of me, and whether any of these labels would fit me very well. He will be greatly missed.

Another giant, far better known, who passed on was Al Copeland, founder of Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits restaurants, Copeland's restaurants, and other ventures. He too was self-made, and had a flamboyant lifestyle, with a his bevy of speedboats, race cars, flashy motorcycles, and a home in the New Orleans area that at Christmas, was lit up with more than a million lights. He too, died from a rare form of cancer, tumor of the salivary glands. One can only speculate as to whether his cancer was associated with his restaurant business. His compelling story can be found at Wikipedia, among other places.

You Live in Cajun Country when...

• You find it difficult to give directions without saying "up the bayou," "down the bayou," "across the bayou," and similar
• Roadkill generally consists of armadillos, alligators, nutrias, ‘possums and ‘coons…all of which are tasty with the right amount of Creole seasoning
• You go to a local restaurant, and the choices include crawfish etouffee, shrimp gumbo, crab bisque, and jambalaya
• You think that the four basic food groups are broiled seafood, boiled seafood, fried seafood and beer
• Your “camp” consists of a trailer house perched on 15-ft stilts overlooking a bayou
• You look at your barometer each morning and wonder if it is reading accurately or if it is just stuck on 100% humidity
• You are a distinct minority if your name doesn’t end with …in, …on, …ois, …ot, …iot, …ert, …et, …ete, …ette, …ene, …nge, …ngue, …oux, …eaux, …ier, …aire, or …ard and have a distinctive French sound to it. Examples: Herbert (A-bear), Richard (ree-shard), Breaux (broh).
• Your next-door neighbor’s dog is named either Fideaux or Gator bait, and the bumper sticker on his car says, “Geaux Tigers!”
• Until you left home, you thought Mardi Gras was a national holiday.
• You understand the difference between Zatarains, Zapps and Zydeco. Under Zydeco, check out some of the Musicians at the bottom of the page. One example: Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band.

Hurricane on the Bayou

As everyone knows, Hurricane Katrina was life-changing event in southern Louisiana. Images of New Orleans under water are some of the most vivid. I had the opportunity to go into New Orleans several times to assist in the clean up, and will share a few of the images I captured in future posts. Houma was just far enough to the west, actually about 60 miles southwest, to have been spared from the extreme wind and water damage that occurred especially on the east side of New Orleans and the coastal areas of MS and AL. Hurricane Rita impacted Houma more than did Katrina, with hurricane force winds occurring as nearby as Morgan City, and coastal flooding severely impacting Houma on the SE side of the Intercoastal Waterway that intersects the city, and points further south in Terrebonne Parish. The sugarcane belt was far more impacted by Rita than Katrina, a sizeable portion of it being severely flooded with water high in salt content.

Judy and I were invited to attend a preview of the IMAX film, "Hurricane on the Bayou," prior to its general opening in New Orleans. Amazingly, much of the footage of this film occurred before Hurricane Katrina, with the anticipation that something like a Katrina was well within the realm of possibilities because of coastal erosion and a relentless loss of vital wetlands. Ironically, from the perspective of the producers, the timing of Hurricane Katrina was almost as though it were on queue. This film is a must-see, if you have any interest whatsoever in Bayou Country and the potential far-reaching impact of not taking decisive action to protect Louisiana's wetlands.

Life in Houma, sweet Houma

Over the weekend, I went to the Spring Arts, Crafts, & Food Festival at the former Southdown Plantation, the most significant plantation home in Houma, now a Historical Museum. After checking out most of the exhibits, I went to my perenniel favorite, which features a wide variety of jams and jellys, and sugarcane and sweet sorghum syrups. I had the good fortune of visiting an exhibit featuring some of the paintings of Ron Atwood who hails from Homer (not Houma). He does incredible work. Among his paintings, check out his newest. I was so impressed with "The Swamp," I thought long and hard about buying the large version, but chickened out, and just bought a small version at the end. Also, over the weekend, I took a walk in our neighborhood. We have a small "lake," and the neighborhood kids love fishing in it. Right now, the sac-au-lait (sock-oh-lay) is what the kids are catching. That's White Perch, for those not from this region. They caught three during the short time I was watching, so I decided to take snapshot of their success.

Being a Sugarcane Breeder on the Bayou

There aren't that many sugarcane breeders in the country, so when the opportunity was given to me to return to my profession, this time in southern Louisiana, I was very grateful. Having been underemployed for several years has given me a whole different perspective, and a healthy appreciation for how fortunate I am to even have a professional position. I think everyone ought to have the experience of being underemployed for a few years.

Sugarcane culture in Louisiana is so completely different than in Hawaii, that we might as well be talking about two completely different crops. When I first moved to Hawaii, the crop was grown anywhere from 2 to 4 years before it was harvested. The crop consisted of a mass of stalks that formed a mat usually about waist deep that would be almost impossible to walk through. The older stalks, if carefully untangled from the mat, would often be in the range of 30 feet in length. The crop was harvested with a so-called push rake, which is a large bulldozer with tines on the front. The cane was pushed into windrows and lifted with a crane into massive cane haul trucks with rows of chains on the bottom to hold the cane in place (and allow the dirt clumps and rocks to fall through) while the load was taken to the mill. The crop in Hawaii is essentially a year-around crop, so planting and harvesting is continually going on, and the crop age is variable as is easily seen from the air.

By contrast, the cane crop in Louisiana doesn't really start growing much until early April, and yet, less than 6 months later is being harvested. The harvest season is generally from late Sep to Dec 31, basically making it a 6 to 9 month crop. Harvesting is done with a chopper harvester, the cane being cut into billets less than 1 ft long. To achieve flowering in Louisiana, the desired parents must undergo a photoperiod treatment, being moved in and out of dark chambers, following a precise day-night regime for a 3-month period that changes by 1 min per day to simulate what would occur in a more tropical environment. In such a limited space to accomodate breeding canes, individual tassels are more highly prized in Louisiana than in Hawaii. When I first moved to Louisiana, I couldn't even relate to the concept of tassel-use-efficiency. Now I understand.

Selection traits not so important in Hawaii that are much more important on the bayou, include the following: stalk erectness until late into the season, rapid sucrose accumulation, stubbling ability (to get several seasons of growth with one planting), stalk freeze tolerance, below-ground winter survival, and early spring vigor. As stated before, it's almost like working with two entirely different crops.

Being a Sugarcane Breeder in Hawaii

Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to become a sugarcane breeder when I graduated from a Midwestern university. But Judy was from northern Idaho, and really wanted to be close to mountains. Major agronomic crops and mountains are pretty much incompatible. I promised her I would look on the "open positions board," and tell her every job that was remotely close to mountains. I came home one evening and told her in a not very serious tone, "There is a job in Hawaii, and Hawaii has mountains." She said, "What about checking it out?" I said, "Judy, Hawaii is a place where you go on vacation, not a place where you work." To make a long story short, the more I looked into it, the more interesting the job sounded. Sugarcane was at that time, by far the most important crop in Hawaii. As it turned out, the next 16 years were the most idyllic of my life. As I look back, I can't believe how grossly I under-appreciated how nice the job was that I had in Hawaii. While she was on vacation in Hawaii, I took my older sister, Carolyn, to our breeding station in the Maunawili Valley on the windward side of Oahu, which is recognized as possibly the most free-flowering location on the planet for making sugarcane crosses.

When she finished her vacation, she told me that this location was her favorite, of all the places we took her. Having worked there for several years, I had reached the point of having taken it for granted. Being a sugarcane breeder has its challenges, not the least of which is to get different varieties to flower...and flower at the same time, so that genetic crosses can be made. But the development of just one new variety 10% higher yielding than the mainstay variety, was worth tens of millions of dollars to the industry annually, so the industry was getting a good return on its $6 million /year investment into research (1977 dollars), much of which was directed at the breeding program. Today, with only two sugar plantations remaining in Hawaii, much has changed. I left sugarcane research in 1990, installed turfgrass on new golf courses until 1993, then left Hawaii altogether with many fond memories.

Being a Plant Breeder

Personal comments about my profession as a plant geneticist. When I attended graduate school at the University of Minnesota from 1972-1977, the term "plant geneticist" was not as commonly used as was the term "plant breeder." Molecular genetics was at that time taught as a botany or biochemistry course. The primary training for future plant breeders interested in the genetic improvement of agronomic and horticultural crops was in quantitative or statistical genetics, rather than in molecular genetics. Professors were primarily field-oriented, rather than lab oriented. Fast forward to today, 30 years later, it is readily apparent that traditional plant breeders are becoming scarce, at least in public institutions. Most position openings today in plant genetics are for lab-oriented molecular geneticists. Those of us oriented toward quantitative genetics, who studied traits in the field, rather than in a laboratory or greenhouse, have had to adapt, at least to the point of being familiar with molecular genetics terminology, in order to remain relevant.

Above is a pic of me working together with a molecular geneticist in Louisiana, interpreting the output from a DNA analysis (microsatellite markers) of progeny from a sugarcane cross, deciding which progeny should be planted to the field for selection purposes, and which should be discarded straight away.

First Post as a Blogger

I guess it was inevitable. I have entered the arena, and am now officially a blogger.