The Ponds are Crawfish Ponds. First they plant rice in about 2 inches of water. Once the rice grows high enough to shade the water, farmers seed the ponds with wild crawfish babies. As the water warms, the crawfish burrow underground. In July the fields are drained. The crawfish are “activated” by changes in barometric pressure like storms. No storms, no crawfish.
After the rice is harvested, the females come out with up to 900 babies attached to the underside of their tails. They all feed on the rice stubble. In about 90 days they can harvest the crawfish!
You can also find wild crawfish in the swamps and roadside ditches.
When you go to the places that sell crawfish, like Tony’s Seafood, it comes in 25 lb bags similar to those onions come in. You generally figure about 4 or 5 lbs per person.
One time when we lived in Hammond, we bought sevaral bags for a Crawfish Boil with some friends. Our driveway was long and curved in the front of the property. There was a hole in the bag and the crawfish were systematically escaping, walking in a single file line all the way down the driveway,
Oh yeah, you want them alive when you dump them into the boiling pot of seasoned water!
Crawfish - sigh. I live in a limited crawfish area, but love them anyway. Mine are usually frozen, but the best I can get.
ReplyDeleteI have never eaten a crawfish, but now I know a lot more about them then I did before! We don't have rice/crawfish ponds in Ohio that I know of.
ReplyDeleteGotta love our mudbugs! We've had a few escapees. Those are the ones we give to the kids to play with. You know, after you've raise boys, that doesn't sound so strange. Thanks again for coming! Somehow I knew you'd enjoy the drive.
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