Louisiana: Cane Harvest Begins, and a Song

Harvesting sugar cane. Louisiana. November 2013.

On Saturday morning, on my way to Lafayette, as I listened to KRVS' Saturday morning show, Zydeco Est Pas Sale, the DJ acknowledged the start of the sugar cane harvest. In its honor, he played Clifton Chenier's bluesy waltz, Je Suis en Recolteur (I Am a Farmer).

The words in English:

They call me a cotton picker
They turn around and call me a corn breaker
I'm a cane cutter, oh yes, I'm a cane cutter.

I'm a potato digger.

Ain't no way, ain't no way, baby, you're gonna starve with me around.

I'm a cotton picker, a potato digger
I'm a cane cutter.

Oh, oh yeah, yeah darlin'

I'm a cotton picker
I'm a pecan cutter 
And baby, I'm a potato digger.

But everybody got to know where I'm a farmer
Everything gonna go wrong.
Everything gonna go wrong.
Oh yeah, baby.

Enjoy:

Related links:

Louisiana: Sugar Cane (December 2013)

Jeanerette, Louisiana: The Sweetest Place in Louisiana (January 2014)


 

Abbeville, Louisiana: Steen's Sugar

Steen's Sugar, Abbeville, Louisiana

You know how a shot of alcohol or caffeine can hit you right away? I didn't know that sugar - make that pure cane syrup - can pack a similar wallop.

Steen's Sugar, Abbeville, Louisiana

The Abbeville visitor center docent gave me a spoonful to try. Hoo-doggies.

Steen's Sugar, Abbeville, Louisiana

My friend and I would have enjoyed going on a tour of Steen's Sugar Mill in town, but it was closed.

Steen's Sugar, Abbeville, Louisiana

I like its commercial art.

Jeanerette, Louisiana: The Sweetest Place in Louisiana

Sugarcane trucks, Jeanerette, Louisiana 

I'm kind of fascinated by the sugarcane harvesting. No idea why. But I like the shape of the trucks. The harvesting machines are like dinosaur robots. And the sugarcane is so green. 

I first wrote about sugarcane in Louisiana here.


Recently, I drove through Jeanerette ("the sweetest place in Louisiana"), which is on Highway 182.

Right on the edge of town, in the short-short video below, you can see: unharvested sugarcane, sugarcane being harvested, empty going out for more sugarcane, and the plant processing the cane. Not to mention the killer song by Blind Boys of Alabama. (I heard them play this very song at Columbia's first Roots 'n Blues Festival.)

I got out of my car to take some pictures of the processing plant. The processing produces an aroma that is not unpleasant. It's not the enticing fragrance of peppers roasting in New Mexico, but it has a homey, agrarian smell. Like barns and horses and earth.

Sugarcane plant, Jeanerette, Louisiana

Louisiana: Sugar Cane

Sugar cane field, Louisiana

I came down to Louisiana the end of November, the same time as the sugar cane harvest.

Sugarcane harvest, Louisiana

Before I moved here last month, when I thought of Louisiana, I thought of: cajun/zydeco, cajun/creole, New Orleans, festivals, swamps, bayous, alligators ... (I didn't even think about oil although it's become clear to me that oil - its search, harvest, processing, export - everything about oil - is just as much part of Louisiana as are the bayous. More on this, I'm sure, in the future.)

Sugarcane harvest, Louisiana

I didn't associate sugar canes with Louisiana, although like oil, I realize now this was a knucklehead oversight on my part.

I followed a sugarcane truck on my way to Lake Fausse Point State Park recently, while listening to the excellent KRVS, Acadie Radio.  

I've missed this year's sugar cane festival, but I'll make up for that next fall.

Some factoids on sugar cane

Source: wikipedia

• Sugar cane is the world's largest crop. 
• It's a grass. 
• "Sugarcane plantations, like cotton farms, were a major driver of large human migrations in the 19th and early 20th century, influencing the ethnic mix, political conflicts and cultural evolution of various Caribbean, South American, Indian Ocean and Pacific island nations."

Factoids on sugarcane in Louisiana

................................ Oh, right. .... coming right up ... I was distracted by this.

So anyway:

This brief video explains a bit about the 14-month cycle and therefore, the need for three parcels of land to maintain uninterrupted cycles. short crop (for next year's harvesting), tall crop (for this year's harvesting), and a fallow parcel for soil resting.

Produced by "Louisiana Sugar," the infomercial video below is long at almost 15 minutes, but it presents an interesting overview of the life of sugar from planting to packaging.

The harvesting machine looks so antediluvian. Fascinating to watch.

Highway 78. Sugarcane harvest, Louisiana

A style note: There seems to be no consensus on "sugarcane" versus "sugar cane," and as you can see, I couldn't make up my mind, either.