ROUSES_Spring2024_Magazine Pages Web

“W hat Rouses customers can depend on is that we always get the very best of what’s out there,” said Denise Englade, the director of seafood for Rouses Markets, “and just like every crawfish season, we are the place to come for the best price and quality.” One word that describes the situation, however, is “unprecedented,” she said. “It’s just something no one’s ever seen before. The kind of drought and then heat and then freeze that we went through in 2023 and into 2024, it all just continued to pile up and snowball, one negative impact after another on the crawfish industry. We’ve never really seen anything like this, so no one really knew what to expect.” So how did we get here? You probably recall the AC-slaying drought this past summer, during which time the sun roasted our lush state into a scorched, arid tableau. It was a summer so severe it bordered on the theatrical. Remember the salt wedge? It was a bizarre, typically New Orleans crisis. The drought caused the Mississippi River to fall to perilously low levels, allowing saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico to intrude upstream — far enough to threaten the city’s drinking

water supply. To combat this, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reinforced an underwater barrier to halt the saltwater’s progression, and rain did come — eventually. In the end, the worst was averted…for us. But while we muddled through on snowballs and triple-digit electric bills, the crawfish in the basins and rice farms became unwitting actors in a drama of survival. First, the dry ground caused under ground burrows, where crawfish usually spend the summer reproducing, to crack open, harming their habitats. Second, the lack of rain increased the salt levels in water sources used to flood crawfish ponds. (Farmers generally depend on surface water for irrigation.) This was understandably hard on the crawfish, especially the smaller ones. Additionally, there were concerns about the health of rice, grasses and other forages that crawfish feed on during the winter, as these too were affected by the hot, dry conditions. It was bad all around, and we are still feeling the effects. In the end, about 45,000 acres of crawfish ponds were directly affected, and another 43,000 acres became inaccessible for fishing due to dry ponds or saltwater intrusion. Farmers did the best they could, flushing fields with water to reduce

In a Pinch By David W. Brown As you probably know by now, this has been a tough season for crawfish. The bottom line, however, is that while the season is unusual, it is not canceled. The crawfish industry is made up of small family businesses, and Rouses has been working closely with many of them for decades. This year, we are partnered with more than 20 different crawfish vendors to make sure that as the yields increase, our shoppers are the first to benefit.

CRAWFISH AND RICE ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT What does rice have in common with crawfish? More than it does with étouffée! Both rice and crawfish thrive in soils with sufficient clay content, which is crucial for water retention. The crawfish actively contribute to the water quality of rice fields, stirring up sediments and enhancing oxygenation, fostering a healthier ecosystem for both rice and crawfish. In this integrated system, rice is planted in March. When it reaches a height of about six inches, water is pumped in. Live crawfish are introduced in May. The crawfish mate in the open waters of the rice field before burrowing beneath the rice. This helps them to weather the summer heat and also ensures their safety during the rice harvest. The rice fields remain flooded until mid-summer, when they are drained, preceding the rice harvest in late July or August. The fields

are then reflooded to draw the crawfish out of their holes. The crawfish feed on the recently cut rice stubble, which is the vegetative part of the rice plant that remains after the harvest.

DID YOU KNOW? ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Louisiana is among the top three rice-producing states in the country , behind Arkansas and California (Mississippi is the sixth-largest rice-producing state). Jefferson Davis and Acadia parishes in Southwest Louisiana are particularly well-suited for rice production. Recognized as the “Rice Capital of the World,” Crowley, in Acadia Parish, hosts the International Rice Festival.

16 ROUSES SPRING 2024