Der’s some funny videos going around the e-mail in South Louisiana with the star bein “PooPoo Broussard”

That’s a Cajun right dere, yeh sha.

Youtube has all sorts of Cajun goodies on YouTube. The guy who wrote one of my favorite books “Cajuns: Americanization of a People”, Shane Bernard has some videos on Youtube. Recently, I uploaded a couple of my own videos.. any of y’all remember Belizaire the Cajun? I got the trailer on Youtube. I also put up a video I encoded of a real old movie about Cajuns. The kid in here is a Boudreaux and they are speaking Cajun French.

Incredibly, someone also subtitled a bunch of popular American shows, from Jerry Springer to Futurama, all in Cajun French. Ahh the Internets, laisser les bon temps rouler!

Thank you all for your comments on the Cajun English post. I’ll be compiling them, passing them by my mom and adding a refined list to Wikipedia’s page. Speaking of the Cajun Language(s), I was pleasantly surprised to see a new Cajun French blog titled “Cajun French Language Tutorials” which started in November of 2006. The site is run by a bona-fide Cajun, Jim Lege. This is what he has to say about this site:

My name is James Leger (call me Jim). I am a 65 year old native of Louisiana and i give free tutorials and advice for those interested in the Cajun language. I also discuss customs and history related to the Cajun heritage, and would be happy to entertain your questions.

I taught Cajun French in Lamar University’s Continuing Education program in Port Arthur, Texas. I was raised with Cajun French as my first language. I speak fluent Cajun French and can speak and read standard French as well.

I plan to talk about how the Cajun language has been mistaken as a crude form of standard French, as well as other misconceptions about the language. Cajun French is actually a very complicated language, and has both formal and informal conversational dialogues. I will show you both the similarities and differences in standard and Cajun French, and many other characteristics of the Cajun language that you probably never knew!

The site’s RSS feed can be found here.

I know..I know I always start blog entries out by saying I’ll update more but I’m going to school full time now and working full time as well. Once I graduate in December 07, I’m going to rebuild all of RealCajunRecipes.com and make it a lot easier for Maw-Maw to update everything. Till then, here’s a sporadic post:

The Cajun English article at Wikipedia is looking right! What’s there now is so accurate, it had to have been written by a Cajun. I’m going to talk to my mom to see what she can add.. I wanted to add a few but didn’t know the pronunciation or spelling. If you do and can help, here are a few that I’ve got in mind:

goudmon: greedy
Poo Yaille/Oh Yaille/Mais Yaille: “Oh lord”
Tee: Friend, Jr.
get down: Don’t know how to word the literal translation but I know the phrase is derived from French.
Picon: picker
Masscro ne pas. “I don’t know” I’m sure I butchered that one.
Save the dishes/laundry: From French
Poil: pubic hair (pronounced pwell)

The only example on the page I’m thinking isn’t accurate is “My eye”. I think that might be “Mais Yaille” though maybe they just don’t use it around Kaplan. I remember the last time someone exclaimed that to me. It was great.. I was talking to an old Cajun, Mr. Frederick about his experience in the Korean War. I asked if anyone he knew got VD out there and he said “VD? What’s dat, sha” and I said “Mr. Frederick, VD means venereal disease” and he said “Aw Yaille! I don’t know, it’s been too long.”

Back in 1997, I was a student living miserably in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Unbeknownst to me at the time, North Louisiana was not part of Cajun Country. I moved there and was soon asking, “Where are all the Catholic Churches, seafood resturants and warm people?” The people in Natchitoches had a strange accent and prided themselves not on how well they could make a gumbo, but how well they could make a meat pie or wreath made of magnolia stems. Like the day I asked my mom why we never ate blackened food, I realized that I’d been mislead by popular media. Not everyone in Louisiana is Cajun nor can everyone in Louisiana cook well.

I wasn’t happy in Natchitoches; I found the Information Systems program at Northwestern State to be ultra-subpar. I wanted to be in a place that was on the cutting edge of technology and North Louisiana was not that place. The thought crossed my mind to do something drastic for broadband but I didn’t take the idea seriously until I asked the TCA cable guy when cable modems would be available. He looked at me and scoffed “Not anytime soon, that’s for sure.” After some prodding, I found out that broadband access would not be available there until 3 years later, in 2000. That day, I began looking around the country for suitable places to live, ie. places that provided cable modem service. After some thought, I decided on San Diego, California.

Fast forward nearly 10 years and I’ve made my way up the California coast, living as far away from Silicon Valley as Kaplan is from Lafayette (22 miles, give or take). Technologically speaking, Cajun Country has progressed by leaps and bounds. Lafayette is one of the first places in the entire US to offer municipal Internet access. While we don’t even have that here in San Francisco, Mountain View, home of Google and one of the towns in Silicon Valley, does provide municipal WI-FI but that project is being funded solely by Google. In a show of awesomeness, the citizens of Lafayette are funding their own damn network and they’ve even faced lawsuits by both Cox Cable and BellSouth to do so.

PBS.org has a special on the courage of Lafayette residents titled “The Net @ Risk: Fiber in Lafayette Louisiana.” You can read more there as well as watch the accompanying video (complete with Cajun accents that can take any displaced Cajun back home instantly).

Here’s a cute lil e-mail going around the Cajun circles… “Geaux”, for those who don’t know, is pronounced “Go.”

A Cajun’s Family Tree

• His dizzy aunt…..Vertie Geaux

• The brother who loved prunes…..Gotta Geaux
• The brother with constipation problems…..Neaux Geaux
• The cousin who worked at a convenience store…..Stop N Geaux
• The grandfather from Yugoslavia…..U Geaux
• The nephew from Illinois…..She Car Geaux
• His magician uncle…..Where Diddy Geaux
• The Mexican cousin…..A Me Geaux
• The Mexican cousin’s American sister…..Gring Geaux
• The nephew who drove an armored car…..Loomis Far Geaux
• The uncle serving time in Angola prison…..Lemme Geaux
• The ballroom dancer…..Tang Geaux
• The bird-lover uncle…..Flo Ming Geaux
• His over confident nephew…..E. Geaux
• The fruit-loving nephew…..Mang Geaux
• An aunt who’s an optimist…..Way To Geaux
• The bouncy little nephew…..Poe Geaux
• A sister who loves disco…..Go Geaux
• The niece who had an oversized van…..Winnie Bay Geaux
• The Italian grandmother…..Day Geaux

I was saddened to read in the headlines today that the long-time New York Times journalist, R.W. Apple, passed away. I wrote to Mr. Apple a few years back thanking him for a wonderful article on Kaplan, Suire’s Grocery, Cajun Food & Cajun History. In his article titled It Takes More Than Crayfish to Make a Cajun Wiggle, he writes..

Kaplan, La. HERE in the land of drive-through daiquiri joints and truck-stop casinos, you often eat better in grocery stores, butcher shops and cafes than you do in restaurants. There are exceptions, of course, but in Acadiana, as a rule, the more rudimentary the surroundings, the more genuine the grub.

Bare bulbs, in other words, are what you look for, not recessed lighting, paper napkins, not linen.

Another thing: the best Cajun cooking isn’t blisteringly hot, contrary to popular belief. It’s not about incinerating fish and meat. The guardians of regional tradition produce rich, slowly simmered soups and stews, more boldly flavored than most American food, yes, but not one-dimensional.

Take Suire’s Grocery, three miles south of here, on the edge of the rice country. The name rhymes with “beer,” the décor runs to soft-drink coolers and Formica tables and the menu lists some weird combos like crawfish fettuccine. But the crowds don’t come to Kaplan for that. Hunters out for duck and speckle-bellied goose stop in for the fabulous turtle sauce picante, which few cooks bother with anymore, or luscious, old-fashioned shrimp and egg stew, or deep-fried catfish, as crisp as tissue paper.

The entire article is great but that’s about all I can quote using fair use. He goes on to talk about turtle, mirlitons, tasso, grattons and even Cajun history. It’s rare to see such accuracy in popular media.

Au revoir mon ami, Monsieur Apple. Thanks again for representing us Cajuns so well.

Just a friendly public service announcement; for those of you in Louisiana who have access to LPB, a show titled “Washing Away: Losing Louisiana” is replaying on LPB. Check your listings for showtimes.

Watch The Trailer: Window Media iPod

In the Fall of 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita churned ashore and wreaked havoc upon the already endangered coastline of Louisiana. Washing Away: Losing Louisiana tells the stories of six Louisianans and how the storms affected the coastline, their land and their livelihoods. These people share their stories and their knowledge of the larger impacts of coastal land loss on the environment, wildlife, the economy, industry, culture and communities.

The participants include New Orleans chef Leah Chase, the owner of the famous Dooky Chase Restaurant; Errol Domingue, a third-generation sugar cane, rice, cattle and crawfish farmer from Erath; Preston Dore, a shrimper from Delcambre whose seafood restaurant, bar and distribution business were destroyed by Rita. Marlon Horton, a 26-year-old New Orleans East resident, videotaped his harrowing experiences during and following Katrina including the flooding of his home, his helicopter rescue, and evacuation to the Causeway bridge and then to the Astrodome. Also featured are Port Fourchon port director Ted Falgout and Kerry St. Pe, a marine biologist and director of the Barataria-Terrebone National Estuary, a 4.2 million acre area currently experiencing the worlds fastest rate of land loss.

Academy Award-winning actress Susan Sarandon narrates the program, which features music by Cajun performer Zachary Richard, New Orleans jazz singer Leah Chase and the talented Cajun band LAngelus.

This song has been making it’s way around the Cajun e-mail circles. According to the kbon.com forums, it’s by a band called “The Honky Tonk Band.” Listen here and sing along.

I’m just a a Swire from Grand Chenier
I drink my beer and moonshine too
I love de rain. And Mary Jane.
I like to sang and play de guitar and dat’s the troot.

Got me a Camp Out in da swamp
I get out dere whenever I want
I hunt at night with da big spot light
The game wardon tole me dat it was ok until I get caught

I’m just a a Swire from Grand Chenier
I drink my beer and moonshine too
I love de rain. And Mary Jane.
I like to sang and play de guitar and dat’s the troot.

I shoot dem duck out of my truck
I brang my dog. She brang me luck.
And den we go home. Back to duh camp.
And eat some gumbo jumbalie till I get da cramp.

I’m just a a Swire from Grand Chenier
I drink my beer and moonshine too
I love de rain. And Mary Jane.
I like to sang and play de guitar and dat’s the troot.

Repeat myself..
I like to sang and play de guitar and dat’s the troot.

The “Maw-maw” of RealCajunRecipes.com, my mom, grew up working on various farms with her 8 siblings. Though now many Cajun families are smaller (I have 3 siblings), Cajun famlies back then were big because of their religion (Catholicism) and because children in poor families were needed to work on the farms. Mom started her mornings before the sun would even rise. She would work a few hours in the field (picking cotton or sugarcane), go to school then return in the afternoon to continue working in the fields. As you can imagine, she was one of the children that actually loved school; it was a well-earned break from the hard, hot work in the fields. During the 2004 sugar cane season, Mom offered to write about her experiences.

According to the USDA, Louisiana is the second-largest producer of sugar from cane in the United States, with the industry contributing $500 to $600 million to Louisiana’s annual economy. I was part of that industry as a young child. My siblings and I did some cane planting, cutting, and harvesting as younger children. Sugar cane was our winter crop; whereas we had cotton, peppers and a truck farm for our summer crop.

We would plant the cane in early October for next years harvest using the current years growth. You would cut the cane where the “eyes” of the cane were showing. The eyes is where the offshoot came from. In hand cutting the cane, our crop was generally all cut and in by the Thanksgiving holiday. After that we would work for hire at our neighbors’ field. In going to the fields you made sure that every area of your body was covered with clothing as the cane leaf had a tendency to cut skin along with as we know now for sun protection too. . And you never went in the sun unless you had your chapeau paille - straw hat. And you didn’t forget the Mule brand light blue colored gloves.

Originally we would use mules and a wagon to get the crop in. Working with mules you get to understand that you can communicate with animals. Our mules early on were named Luckay and Patsay’. There were 4 words/sounds we learned when working with our mules. Chk Chk, a sound made in your cheek pocket to get the mules moving, Gee used to make them turn left and Haw to make them turn right and Whoa to stop.

Later we turned in the mules for our Allis Chalmers tractor..Allis-Chalmers’ history as a manufacturer extends to the 1840’s in Milwaukee. In 1914 the growing company entered into the farm equipment business. Over the years Allis-Chalmers was responsible for many innovations in farm equipment and grew to become one of the largest and most diverse manufacturers in North America. We would crank our old tractor to get her started being careful to let the crank go right when the engine started. Otherwise, your arm got cranked (cracked) up also. My dad kept his “old” tractor quite a while after he retired. I guess you can attach to inanimate objects.

My Dad, “Coon” as his friends called him and my brothers, Raywood, Francis, Harold and Glenn (MawMaw did it a couple of times but preferred driving the tractor and mules better) pretty much cut cane like the cane soldiers, as they were called in that day, did. Using a hand held cane machete, you would first, cut the dry part of the sugar cane leaf at the bottom of the stalk referred to in Cajun French as “la paille de canne (cone)” - the straw of the cane. ; then you would cut of the greener top leaves of the cane referred to as “la feuille de canne”. The hand action was a fast swinging motion; breaking the momentum or going to fast would result in cutting or splitting open your thigh or shin. It usually was the shin. Everyone of us had that battle scar on one or two of our leg; yep my Dad too.

My brothers and father would walk along sugarcane rows and gather the stalks in their upright positions. They cut the stalks at their base, remove their sugarless tops, and drop the stalks across two adjacent rows, forming what is called a heap row. The old harvesters were called “soldiers” deriving their name from the way the stalks seem to march while they’re being collected. Piles of the harvested cane were collected in a wagon and trucked by tractor to a nearby factory for processing. Once the wagon was loaded to full capacity, you would take the heavy chains and throw them across the wagon to the person on the other side. Since you could not see on the other side of the cane load, you always “called out” the signal that the chain was being thrown so the person on the other side would be aware. That person would then lock the chain securing the load. Once my Dad forgot to call out and ended up hitting my brother Raywood on the head; knocked him out cold. Raywood was taken to the doctor, but being “hard head”, he was not seriously hurt.

We would then “haul” the wagon loads of a cane to a nearby wholesaler, Mr Floyd Boudoin. He would then using the huge cane trucks that we see today, haul and resell to the nearby syrup mills such as Steens Syrup and Barras Sugar Mill. One of the rural roads nearby where I was raised was named after the owner of the Barras Syrup Mill - Germain Barras; Germain Road.

The USDA reports that although soldier harvesting was the accepted method for more than five decades, during the last few years many Louisiana producers have shifted to combine—or chopper—harvesting. According to Ben Legendre, former research leader of ARS’ Sugarcane Research Unit at Houma, Louisiana, and current sugarcane specialist with the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center (LSU AgCenter) at St. Gabriel, the shift corresponds with the introduction and expanded planting of a new, higher yielding crop variety known as LCP 85-384

Cane is steadily taken over rice production in Acadiana due to better weather conditions and crop prices.

Young Cajuns generally do not work on sugarcane farms but we do eagerly look forward to sugarcane season each year. It’s during this time that farmers in big machines transport massive amounts of sugarcane on Louisiana’s sideroads. The large trucks carrying the sugarcane are open-topped and so lots of sugarcane falls into the road during transportation. Cajun kids love picking up that sugar cane, bringing it home and chewing on it. To eat sugarcane, you first have to wash it, then peel it, then cut it into cubes. Chewing the sugarcane extracts pure, unprocessed, delicious sugar. MMM, baw! I’ve seen those fields out here in California but have never taken the time to go out and grab some of the sugarcane laying on the road. Nobody else does either, as far as I can tell. Maybe they see it as a sort of road-kill. Either way, next time, I’m picking some up!