Louisiana

Well, I have to post a quick entry about the past couple of days....

We flew to Baton Rouge, LA to present a program at White Oak Plantation. First picture is the two of us standing in the Jasmine Gazebo. Fragrant? Oh yes.

We really enjoyed everything about the trip. We saw new varieties of plants which don't grow here and sampled many of the local specialties - food wise.

The afternoon that we arrived there, we went to a place called Dempsey's where I enjoyed a corn and shrimp chowder along with an oyster Po'Boy sandwich. Delish!

Then we headed out to the Plantation to take a quick look around so that we would be somewhat familiar with the place the next day when we were hoping to share a bit of knowledge during the garden walk after our first presentation.

This beautiful brick breezeway was such a study in arches and repetitive shapes, the art major in me had to snap a picture.

The fountain courtyard was just one of the many gorgeous sights that awaited us. The huge terra cotta jardiniere that served as the fountain was much more impressive than it appears in this picture.

I'm sure Tina will share a number of her own pictures and perhaps others of mine will find their way here.

After a long walk where we saw things such as climbing fern vines which are apparently a nuisance there, but would just knock us out here at home where we are enthralled with ferns and they die back each year!

We also saw crawfish burrows... wild looking things that look a lot like small versions of African ant hills. Oh, and fire ant hills - something else we don't have here, but that one can stay away.

In the evening, Sarah put together a lovely feast for the three of us including a crab caserole - the recipe was included in one of her books she gave us (Yay!) , a sort of this and that salad that we will definitely be "throwing together" which included small cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives, an assortment of chopped herbs, green tomato relish and a bit of Chef John Folse's Olive oil and his very special aged balsamic vinegar.

She finished it off with some lovely fig cakes baked into rose shapes. We added a bit of vanilla iced cream and some fig sauce for a very special treat - sort of gilding the lily.

This was all followed by a fabulous luncheon on Weds. at the plantation and the night before we left, we "had" to experience a crawfish boil along with a few other specialties of the area.... we certainly ate well and our presentation went well. Apparently we still have the knack of getting our info across with a sense of humor and we were happy to again have that validated.

Here, you can see Tina explaining something about the lemon balm plant on the table while the still is set up in front of her, perking away.

All in all, it was a great trip with wonderful hosts and a lovely group of attendees! We would love to return to Louisiana again one day.