Cajun RV Festival 2024 - day 2

 On Saturday morning, we decided to check out some places that are in the area...

We drove into New Iberia to visit the Konriko Company and Conrad Rice Mill.

We took a tour of the mill -- our guide told us that Mr Conrad tried to register the name of his company as Conrad Rice Company, but the name registration folks that that was too close to another company's name. Since Mr Conrad was German, and in German, the hard-C sound is spelled with a "K", he chose Konriko for KONrad RIce KOmpany.

The grates where, in the past, the rice would have been poured in out of the trucks from the field. At that time, the drying process of the rice was done at the mill. Now the farmers do the drying in the fields, and the rice is delivered to the mill in large bins (I think I understood that correctly!).

Mill building

On the door as we entered the mill!

Inside the mill

There was a board with a diagram that helped our tour guide explain the process...

She talked us through this process...

Model of the stages of the milling process with our guide in front. She had a very south-Louisiana accent, so... you may get as much from reading the sign as we actually understood!

"Paddy Machine - This machine is designed to remove the brown rice from the paddies (those rice grains still in the hull). Our paddy machine was built in Germany around 1927."

Our guide telling us about the packing machines. These are the machines that stitch the bags closed with the stitch that if you pull it right, it will pull right off, as long as you pull in the right place!

The mill is on the National Register of Historic Places.

End of tour, heading back to the store.

Inside the store

One of their distinctive products is "Wild Pecan Rice" -- it isn't actually wild rice, and doesn't actually have any pecan in it but has a nutty taste! They had some cooked that we could sample in the shop.

Funny teeshirt in the shop

Some of the sewn bags. I think I understood that they can no longer get these bags (since Covid) so they use just kraft-paper type bags now.

From the rice mill, we drove to Ollie's Bargain Store to get a few items. We have found that Ollie's Stores are not in all states, and there are a few items that we like to get there (coffee pods), so we check as we get into a new area to see if we can stock up!

We decided to stop at the Super-1 Grocery Store next door -- we found some interesting items that we aren't used to seeing at Walmart...

Smoked parts (meats)

More smoked parts -- we found out that these are used to cook in gumbo.

Saturday evening was gumbo night at the festival, so Carl got to enjoy gumbo, presumably cooked with some "smoked parts"!

Saturday evening's entertainment was Kevin Naquin and Cajun Preservation. This group has two fellows playing fiddles which was interesting as sometimes they played in unison and sometimes in answer one to the other.

Culture, food, and music - Cajun-style!