EP:440 | Crawfish

On this episode we are joined by Jordy Veillon of Louisiana to explain crawfish farming. Crawfish boils are a spring/summer tradition across the South that is gaining popularity elsewhere. But do you know the whole process of raising them from seed to the boiling pot? Jordy is pure Cajun and entertains the group with his wit while explaining the whole process of raising crawfish to sell.  We ask questions from feeding ducks to largemouth bass, and finally how to best cook and eat mudbugs. It’s a fun one with many laughs. 

Listen, Learn and Enjoy. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I'm Jeff Foxworthy and welcome to Gamekeeper Podcast. If you want to learn more about farming for wildlife and habitat management, then buddy, you are in the right place. Join the Gamekeeper crew direct from Officio Plan Enhancement Studio as they discuss the latest wildlife and habitat management practices. News, and of course, honey. There's no telling what you'll learn, but I'm gonna tell you. I bet it's interesting. Enjoy.

SPEAKER_07 0:27

We're live in three, two, one.

SPEAKER_08 0:30

All right. Here we are. Turkey season's winding down. Everybody's yeah, it's been tough. Yeah. It's been tough. Has anybody at the table missed a turkey? Um I'm specifically looking at. Yeah. But I'm actually looking at Lanny. I have we had a uh swing and a miss? I thought we've talked about that. I thought we've already roasted Lanny about this.

SPEAKER_11 0:57

And then the funny thing is you wouldn't admit of how many turkeys you've missed. We tried to compare. I don't know. I don't know why you wouldn't talk about how many turkeys you've missed in your career.

SPEAKER_04 1:07

Shame missing just if you don't hit them. It's heartbreaking when you hit one, you know you hit them. But if you just clean missed them, just laugh.

SPEAKER_09 1:16

Now Bobby did have the year where he the season where he couldn't figure out his glasses. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_11 1:21

I really I really encourage a good excuse. That's a great excuse. I encourage you to roast me more because I know what's going to happen to you. For sure.

SPEAKER_08 1:30

I might start, let's we might start this one over again. I don't know. It's coming. So look, today we're going to talk about something little, it's a lot of fun. I've got a lot of questions. We eat a lot of crawfish. I love fish with crawfish looking baits. You were trying to get me to put crawfish in my pond.

SPEAKER_04 1:47

Still want you to. Crawfish are for eating.

SPEAKER_08 1:51

Yeah, well, fish love them too. So let me look, let me get started. First off, thanks, Vandy, for showing up. Vandy is in. Being here. Vandy Stubbs. Can we get this? Oh, you won't really love it.

SPEAKER_06 2:02

We knew this would be a food heavy episode. Toxie Vandy.

SPEAKER_04 2:06

Mr. Fox titled him Chef Boyardy. He's a regular Chef Boyard D. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 2:11

Toxie, you missed the last couple, so that perfect attendance award. You're not going to be able to do that. I've never. My perfect attendance award if you ever get me to show up even once. Well. Been pretty good then. Landon, you had a big uh event in your life where Hayden turned 16 and he's now driving. Yeah, look out. If you see a I saw him driving yesterday.

SPEAKER_11 2:30

Yeah, if you see a black dodge with a gamekeeper sticker on it. Beware. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Beware. But now, yeah, big, it is.

SPEAKER_04 2:38

I hate to tell you that's the most pivotal moment of raising kids. When you handle that set of keys, that independent streak just takes off.

SPEAKER_11 2:45

He's been driving for a year, though, with me. You know, he's a good operator. You know. Oh, he is. So uh, you know, you gotta you worry about everybody else, and of course him too. But you know uh all I got to say is Life 360, it's an amazing tool. How about that?

SPEAKER_08 2:58

Yeah, all right. Well, all right, look, we've got a guy through the magic of Zoom, he's here with us. He's an agent for the Mossy Oak Properties, which is the world's leader in rural property. If you're wanting to buy some hunting land or just a place to get away to, you gotta check out Mossio Properties. Yes. So we've got, and look, I'm gonna mess this up. I know it at some point, but we've got Mr. Jordi Vayon. Yeah, you already messed it up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

Not bad. Not bad.

SPEAKER_04 3:30

I guess you've heard worse. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:33

Spell for the how do you spell that, Jordy? V-E-I-L-L-O-N.

SPEAKER_08 3:44

You know, I've always heard that I always heard there was an I before E, except after C, except in this guy.

SPEAKER_09 3:50

Except in this name, apparently when it's French. Yeah, I have to. Except for when you're talking about French. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:56

I've had called me villain, uh Velon. I mean all kinds of different ways over the years.

SPEAKER_08 4:04

So you're in Louisiana, obviously, but uh to nail it into a certain location, you're in Valais Plate. Louisiana. I bet you booked.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

It's Phil Platte.

SPEAKER_08 4:21

There you go. Okay.

SPEAKER_11 4:23

Platinum. This is a lot harder than it looks.

SPEAKER_04 4:27

Hey, Bob, you're you're open so far.

SPEAKER_11 4:29

I mean, we're not that far away from Louisiana. It's just across the state line. You need to get down there more often.

SPEAKER_08 4:34

I love Louisiana. So when he's not selling properties, this guy is managing 1,300 acres down there. He's farming rice, soybeans, and crawfish. And that's what we're going to talk about tonight. All right. And ducks. Oh, yeah. And he farms ducks. He farms. I did not know that. I knew he'd leased some duck blinds.

SPEAKER_05 4:53

I know that's what he's doing. He's farming for wildlife. And you can lease one of them.

SPEAKER_08 4:57

Let's be careful with the farm duck. Yeah, that'd look like a good idea. Yeah, because you know, we've that whole farm duck thing has gotten a big limit. There you go. All right, Jordy, can you smile? I've yet to see you smile up there.

SPEAKER_02 5:12

I can't see my head.

SPEAKER_08 5:15

I cannot see awesome. Yeah. So how did uh what what the baseball series last weekend? How'd that go, guys?

SPEAKER_06 5:24

Well, you know, he's he's a raging Cajun, I believe.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

Oh, yeah. Right? I I'm a graduate of of uh ULL. Yes.

SPEAKER_06 5:32

That's right. So he didn't he's not are you an LSU fan?

SPEAKER_02 5:36

I am an LSU fan, first and foremost.

SPEAKER_06 5:39

Okay. Okay. Well then Okay, go ahead with your statement, Bob.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 5:45

I really didn't have a statement. I was just asking how that series went last weekend. That may have been why he looks so depressed. He does look like he's looking at it.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

LSU had a rough year. I'll give you that. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_09 5:57

We we've been through it too. I mean, we're Mississippi State fans. We know how to take a beating.

SPEAKER_02 6:03

Well, y'all doing good this year, right?

SPEAKER_04 6:05

We are. We are. You know, we've always been like the school of like, hey, but wait till next year. But this year is next year, so we yeah, we're rolling this.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

We felt bad for y'all. You know, we have to give y'all a year because tomorrow we'll take it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:25

Yeah. We hadn't we hadn't won, we hadn't swept or won a series, I think, even with y'all since 85. Yeah. Which is crazy. It's the year I was born. As good as we've been. How about that? Well, we broke the curse. Does does does Auburn play baseball? Well, we do. We got a pretty good team, Auburn's really good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 6:42

And we were in the NIT.

SPEAKER_04 6:44

Yeah, I knew y'all were in the basket.

SPEAKER_08 6:46

That's basketball, not baseball.

SPEAKER_04 6:47

Where's your uh baseball coach? Where'd he go to school? Where'd he coach?

SPEAKER_08 6:51

He was uh I think he's a product of Mississippi State.

SPEAKER_04 6:54

Grew up in Monroe County, Mississippi.

SPEAKER_08 6:56

Aberdeen, maybe? Amory, Amory.

SPEAKER_04 6:59

Very close, very close. Close enough, by the way. Okay.

SPEAKER_08 7:01

All right. All right, look, let's move off of baseball. Jordi, would you just tell us a little bit about yourself before we get Dudley's got some questions, but I'd love to hear it in your own vernacular. Well, a little bit about you.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

Uh, I mean 40 years old. I uh I farm full-time. That's my full-time job. I do I do real estate on the side, which which I like a lot. Um I have two little boys, one eight-year-old, one four-year-old, and a lovely wife. We've been together for 25 years. It's our anniversary, uh, actually yesterday. Yeah, yeah. So uh yeah, I mean, I'm always busy. Uh don't not much downtime, you know. When I do have downtime, I'm I'm usually in the woods. That's kind of my off season. Like to deer hunt a lot. Never never kill a turkey, though.

SPEAKER_04 7:56

Huh? No. Wow. Never killed it. You know, part of your soul is missing you need to go reconnect with out there.

SPEAKER_06 8:02

There's a lot of places in Louisiana that don't have turkeys.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

No, they don't, we don't have trees. No. Nope. But uh well that's yeah, so by the just of it.

SPEAKER_08 8:15

Huh. Well, the the not having turkeys in Louisiana is that's a Debbie Downer. Yeah, it is, yeah. There's so much like Mars Farm open. Yeah, okay. That makes sense. Yeah. So why don't we get look, we we're Jordy, we got a bunch of questions for you about crawfish farming, but uh let's start with Dudley and the rapid fires. Get this thing kicked off. Nutrient Ag Solutions sponsors this series of uh rapid questions that I ask each week.

SPEAKER_06 8:43

Um, all right, Jordy, I'm gonna just ask you a few questions in rapid fire. We just want to get to know you better. So are you ready? Oh, and I'm gonna warn you since you're from Louisiana, this is gonna be food heavy. So I'm sorry, but I'm ready. All right. Are you ready?

SPEAKER_02 8:58

I'm ready.

SPEAKER_06 8:59

Uh well will you answer this? Would you rather call to the ducks or call to the turkeys?

SPEAKER_02 9:04

The ducks.

SPEAKER_06 9:06

Uh which crop presents the most challenges? Rice, beans, or crawfish?

SPEAKER_02 9:14

Well, I can tell you which crop is most expensive for sure, is rice.

SPEAKER_06 9:19

Okay, then that's that's probably the biggest challenge then.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

Financially, that's a challenge, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 9:25

Uh do you have a favorite brand of boudin?

SPEAKER_02 9:29

Not really. I mean, I I eat it all.

SPEAKER_06 9:33

It's all good.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

It's boudin's boudin. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 9:36

Uh have you ever tried boiled peanuts in a crawfish bowl? Yes or no? I have tried them, yes. Um, is purging crawfish overrated, yes or no?

SPEAKER_02 9:48

It depends how you do it. I I I consider it washing them with just water and just cleaning off the mud. Some people put salt and all kind of weird stuff. I think that's kind of a waste of time.

SPEAKER_06 10:00

Okay. Um, if you were forced to pick only one hot sauce for the rest of your life, what would it be?

SPEAKER_02 10:07

Man, that's a hard one. Yeah, I'm gonna write this with you. I guess I gotta stick with go with Louisiana. I like Louisiana hot sauce. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 10:17

I I don't disagree with that. Um, what wild harvested meat takes up the most space in your freezer?

SPEAKER_02 10:23

No doubt deer meat.

unknown 10:26

Deer meat.

SPEAKER_06 10:26

Uh, would you rather eat grilled duck or grilled deer? I'd say deer.

unknown 10:34

I'd say deer.

SPEAKER_06 10:35

Um, is nutria meat worth the effort? Yes or no?

SPEAKER_02 10:39

Uh I've only tried it one time, and um I can't really tell you if that was a while back and we had several beverages that night. I was back in college. Okay. But I don't know if it's worth it or not.

SPEAKER_06 10:54

I've always wanted it, I've always wanted to try. Well, somebody send him a nutrient. Yeah, well, he's probably got plenty of things. We'll make it taste or smoke.

SPEAKER_04 11:03

Yeah. He may have solved the problem of you know, MSG and all these enhancers. You just have a cabin of beverages and who cares what it tastes like. Go with it.

SPEAKER_06 11:12

Perfect answer. All right. Make your own roux, or I now prefer the jarred roux from the store.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

Well, if you have the time, I prefer making it. To me, it tastes better, but 99% of the time I'm going with the jar.

SPEAKER_06 11:29

I I hear that from Louisiana people. I have just adapted to that.

SPEAKER_11 11:33

And let me tell you what, it is quite convenient. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 11:37

All right, and last but not least, potato salad in your gumbo. Potato salad in your gumbo. I approve, or that's blasphemy. Rice is the only option. I approve.

SPEAKER_02 11:48

I like that.

SPEAKER_06 11:50

I love it. I love it too. It is so good. Yeah. All right, good answers.

SPEAKER_11 11:55

How about the variety is the spice of life. I'm telling you. Mustard potato salad in a gumbo is delicious. Jordy, you sound like an interesting guy. Oh, I'm very interested.

SPEAKER_04 12:06

Yeah, he's a legend in his own mind. His ass drop.

SPEAKER_03 12:11

So that's good.

SPEAKER_08 12:13

We want to talk about crawfish and the process of you farming them. And when we think of crawfish, I mean, Toxie was right out of his mouth there for eating. So he's thinking about boiled crawfish, crawfish etuffet, crawfish pie, crawfish monica. I don't know what that is.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Fried crawfish.

SPEAKER_08 12:28

Crawfish fettuccine.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

Barbecue crawfish.

SPEAKER_08 12:30

That's another one. Pestil pestilolets, omelets, pasta yaya. Dip, crawfish bread.

SPEAKER_09 12:39

Can you get somebody else to read this list off?

SPEAKER_08 12:41

Fried enchiladas. Fried enchiladas.

SPEAKER_04 12:45

Someone who passed English breed for it. Crawfish. This reminds me of a scene in a movie.

SPEAKER_08 12:49

Crawfish bisque. Who made this list?

SPEAKER_09 12:52

I did. Exactly.

SPEAKER_08 12:55

So does anybody else have anything else to add to it?

SPEAKER_04 12:58

Catfish with crawfish sauce. Oh, that is good. Or a whale, either one.

SPEAKER_11 13:03

I'm going to tell you, a broth made of crawfish heads that you use in your gumbo is delicious.

SPEAKER_06 13:09

I've never tried that. I've done shrimp head broth.

SPEAKER_11 13:12

No, do crawfish head broth and then use that as your gumbo broth.

SPEAKER_09 13:16

What about Bandy? You got one more? No, I was just going to say fried crawfish, but I mean you covered a bunch of other random stuff.

SPEAKER_08 13:25

Well, what about uh Geordie? What about you?

SPEAKER_02 13:29

I I tell you it is. I like to eat uh cook like a crawfish etuffet and then put that over a ribeye. And that we call it a cajun ribeye. Oh, yeah, buddy. And I really like it that way for sure.

SPEAKER_03 13:43

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:43

Man, this is starving to death.

SPEAKER_08 13:45

Oh, I know. Me too. All right, Jordy, would you let's just start with the process of farming crawfish. Uh, how do what do we need to know? We it explain that whole process. Bobby wants to know how you plant them. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:02

It it uh it all starts uh see when we plant our we plant our rice typically in March, April. So by the time by May, normally you we have our permanent flood on it, you know, got enough height and it shades out the water. You don't want to put your seed in if the water's too hot, they'll die. So we'll take uh we'll start seeding ponds around May and June for the next year, and we we put anywhere from two to three sacks per acre. We dump them in the in the rice, and then they just stay in there until we let the water out before right before we cut the rice, and then they bury into the ground. And then uh we normally harvest uh you know, August, September, and then I and then come October, we start flooding back, you know, October 1st on. Typically October 1st to the 15th, people will all be flooding by then. And then the crawfish come back out and they they have the uh babies, the females have a tail full of baby crawfish. They say it's probably a sack per crawfish, I guess, they produce. Wow, yeah, yeah. I mean they got a ton of them on there, and then that's it. You keep it flooded, and then uh we'll start crawfishing around middle of January. My men come in and then go from there. And then just repeat the process over and over again, you know.

SPEAKER_11 18:39

Do the does the the crawfish help the rice crop?

SPEAKER_02 18:43

It does clean your fuels. They'll eat, I mean, they'll eat at just about everything. So they'll eat all the grass, the vegetation, and kind of it cleans up your fuels, you know. In that sense, kind of like what soybeans do, you spray the round up. It cleans your fields for the rice crop.

SPEAKER_08 19:02

Um so you are they he uh he is stocking them then, yeah. The breeders. You gotta stock.

SPEAKER_11 19:10

You gotta interesting.

SPEAKER_09 19:11

So how how how long does it take to get them from the I guess the itty bitty? Itty bitty to to eat in size.

SPEAKER_02 19:19

It it takes uh three months, typically. Three months to get from and I mean itty bitty, you can barely see them until they can fit in the trap and serve, you know, to the public. So they grow pretty fast.

SPEAKER_04 19:35

Yeah, they do grow fast. Do you wait for a certain size so you can like get more from them or get more tonnage, or do you just as soon as they're able to harvest, you get them?

SPEAKER_02 19:43

As soon as normally the price is so high, you know, early in January that it's hard not to fish them. Now I don't take the little small ones out. We have a grater, so we'll grade them with we'll all the small ones will fall out back into the water, and then we'll just keep the the better sized ones.

SPEAKER_06 20:02

So are you uh so you are you relying only on that rice stubble and whatever you know weeds are present, or is there any kind of feed folks put out for them, or are you just relying on that that rice stubble and and whatever detritus is is in the water?

SPEAKER_02 20:18

Yeah, we rely on the stubble. Once they eat all the stubble, it's done, it's over with. They haven't come out with anything. You can I I know people tried flying in soybeans and kind of some hay, bales of hay and stuff, but none of that worked, you know. So once you're stubborn, probably much it's about over. You can pull your traps out, they'll either get really like super small and then the uh the big ones already bury when they run out.

SPEAKER_06 20:48

Okay, so they just bury themselves in the ground and and kind of go dormant again. Yeah, exactly. Okay.

SPEAKER_11 20:55

So those some of those big ones that were you me seeing some of those sacks are those just a couple some that had buried up and then made it two seasons?

SPEAKER_02 21:03

Yeah, the ones y'all eating, yeah.

SPEAKER_11 21:05

Um that's that's the one that's I mean sometimes like in a sac.

SPEAKER_02 21:09

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I don't know. We did uh that that's the size they get they get to that size and then you know, and they'll they'll bury typically all year long. You know, they don't it's not all at once. Some will come out early, you get bang, and then bury, and it's kind of like a cycle. They'll come back out again, especially when you have a lot of rain, which we haven't had uh this year uh yet, but they'll come back more babies yesterday. Yeah, they'll just keep going.

SPEAKER_04 21:43

So uh one more time, you said you were talking about you can see all the uh enough babies on one tail that when they get fully grown, it'll almost be a sacred. That's what that's yeah. There's so many. Give or take. So when is that? When they when do they emerge? When do they emerge? Like embryos or whatever it is? What time of year? Uh when we when we start flooding in in October, we call it the flood. Okay, I thought you said October. So you said three months, and what I was getting at, they grow so fast, three months they're ready to harvest, basically. That's correct. But those are those are getting into cold weather, so they keep growing even though it's cold?

SPEAKER_02 22:19

Yeah, they grow slower. They grow slower. So it's typically three months give or take, depending on the weather.

SPEAKER_04 22:26

So yeah, so the the the the little bit warmer it is in the fall, you get a little head start on. That's correct. Yes, okay. That makes sense. I was wondering why they would put on, you think most stuff puts on the weight coming out of spring into summer and stuff, but it's almost the opposite.

SPEAKER_06 22:41

Well, that's um, I mean, a great way to double crop your rice. And you know, rice uh is so uh it doesn't decompose as quick as like wheat or oats or corn or whatever. And so I guess the crawfish serve the purpose of helping you break down that rice double for your next crop, huh?

SPEAKER_02 23:01

Correct, yeah. Once we drain the fields, it it's clean, clean, so we can get in there and work it up right away.

SPEAKER_08 23:09

So, Jordy, do you see the ducks down in that part of the world eating those small crawfish?

SPEAKER_02 23:14

I have never seen that, but I have seen uh speckle belly, uh goose, like a specklebelly. I've seen them eat some real crawfish before. I assume the ducks do too.

SPEAKER_09 23:27

This this this may be a dumb question, but are there different varieties of crawfish? Or different uh strains species, strains, species, whatever?

SPEAKER_02 23:36

No, but they got the uh they got what they call a deep water crawfish, it's the white ones. If you ever seen those, those big white ones, they get real big.

SPEAKER_04 23:46

Um, I've never seen those. Do they taste any different? Yeah, they do.

SPEAKER_02 23:50

They're not as good. Uh and the river crawfish is is also what they call them, the same thing, I guess. Um but and I know when I stocked, I I like to get a lot of seed from the basin. And their crawfish, for some reason, I've noticed have some little red eyes. Ours don't. I don't know. I don't know why, but I've noticed it.

SPEAKER_04 24:16

So pretty much other than what you said, the the white one the crawfish is a crawfish.

SPEAKER_02 24:23

As far as I know.

SPEAKER_08 24:24

So Jordy, uh I understand that the crawfish sheds its exoskeleton at some at some point and then eats it. Does he already have a new exoskeleton on when he emerges, or is he real vulnerable for a little period of time?

SPEAKER_02 24:38

Yeah, he has one, but it's very, very soft. So he's he's vulnerable.

SPEAKER_06 24:43

Like yeah, just like a soft shell crab.

SPEAKER_02 24:46

Same crawfish. Same thing. Here we go. Mm-hmm. Same thing.

SPEAKER_09 24:49

Yeah. What what's what's the biggest crawfish you think you've ever grown? Cool, man.

SPEAKER_02 24:54

I I'd say probably a quarter of a pound.

SPEAKER_04 24:59

Oh that's a whopper.

SPEAKER_02 25:01

Yeah, it's huge, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:02

Uh that's a lobster. That's not a crawfish.

SPEAKER_02 25:05

Yeah. They get so big they don't hardly fit in the uh traps. Um, this is not every every year, but I've had it that I've had it like that before.

SPEAKER_08 25:17

And they can regl regrow a claw if one gets torn off. Correct. That's a that's a pretty amazing feature right there.

SPEAKER_06 25:25

All right, so I just googled it. The uh the crawfish that he's referring to that you see most of the time uh that comes from Louisiana is called the red swamp crawfish.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

There you go. That's the name.

SPEAKER_06 25:35

Uh pro Procamborus Clarcia. You mean your scientific name. And then the the one you said was a river crawfish, uh, its common name is the southern white river crawfish. Procamborus Zonanagulus. You didn't you mispronounced that. I probably did.

SPEAKER_08 25:53

Yeah, yeah. So, hey, Geordie, when I was doing all the research and preparing for this, and I I expect the rest of y'all probably noted this from Geordie as well. He's a big bass fisherman. He fished on the college bass team. But do you like fishing a crawfish pattern down there in those waters?

SPEAKER_02 26:08

Oh, yeah. That's probably one of my favorite ways to do it.

SPEAKER_08 26:12

Yeah. Well, do you ever take any crawfish and put them out in a place you're gonna fish, uh a pond or something? Do you ever put crawfish in ponds? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:21

Yeah. I uh we have a pond at my camp, and uh I I normally dump a few sacks every year in there. And they they they eat them quick.

SPEAKER_08 26:31

I I ran into a guy one time. So a lot of the biologists say don't do it. I mean they do. But I did run into a guy one time, and he said he put some red crawfish into his pond, and he said a week later he went back, and anything he threw that was red, they would snatch it the rod out of his own.

SPEAKER_09 26:46

So what Bobby That sounds like a Bobby tall tail. Why would you not do it? What's the reason?

SPEAKER_08 26:51

I think they say that the the the juice isn't worth the worth the squeeze or the expense of crawl.

SPEAKER_02 26:58

Yeah, but that and it might bury into the levees and cause some problems too, maybe. You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:06

I don't need any more of that. I just got two things. Neutra. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 27:10

So uh can you can you describe the process? Like when you guys start harvesting these things, uh, can you describe that process, like what the trap looks like, what kind of baits you use, uh, all that good stuff?

SPEAKER_02 27:24

Yeah, yeah. So uh my men normally get here from Mexico, they come in uh middle of January, and then once they get here, they start putting traps out. And it's some pillar traps, is what we call them. It's just I'm sure y'all seen them. They're with red tops, don't want, you know, somehow blue.

SPEAKER_06 27:42

Yeah, it almost looks like a looks like a beaker, you know, like uh it's flared at the bottom and the cylinder at the top.

SPEAKER_02 27:49

Correct. And uh so first thing they'll start putting, and we have the boats ready for them when they get here, so they'll start putting traps out. And typically we'll we'll put I like to put 10 per acre. I know LSU recommends 15, but you know, more expensive, and it I don't find it's you'll catch that much more. Um so they'll put the traps out, they'll take them a couple of days. Once they get all the traps out, we'll start uh baiting them. And early in the season, when the water's cold, we use fish, cut bait. We'll cut them, they'll get you know 20-25 boxes of shad or whatever, and they'll cut it up for the next morning, bake the traps, and then when the water warms up, you know, after Easter, I normally switch to artificial and uh and we'll just go with artificial through the rest of the season, and and it works a lot better when when it warms up than the fish, you know. But early fish is better than artificial.

SPEAKER_06 28:50

What it what is artificial?

SPEAKER_02 28:52

It's a bunch of grain that's just they grind it up and they make like a pellet with it. It's a little bracket pellet.

unknown 29:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 29:02

Ingenuity. Yeah, dropping into the bottom. So what what's a uh I know it's probably all over the board, what is your what would be a good average yield per acre? Just like you know, you cut 50 bushels of soybeans and 200 corn or whatever. What's the yield on crawfish? And why is it what's it range?

SPEAKER_02 29:19

Uh well I think that the average over here is about 500 pounds per acre. Uh I think they like to go, you know, try to be on the 600 to 800 pounds, you know, per acre. That's that's an excellent year. It is.

SPEAKER_08 29:35

Can you put that in perspective? Are you seeding like 50 pounds of crawfish per acre to get 500 pounds? Or is there a ratio there that could help us understand that?

SPEAKER_02 29:44

Never figured it out that way, but uh we uh Yeah, I mean we put about the most we'll put is about say a hundred pounds. A hundred pounds an acre of seed. So you get four hundred pounds, I guess, in return.

SPEAKER_08 30:01

That seems like a pretty good return. I think so. Yeah, yeah. What on biomass?

SPEAKER_06 30:05

What about like uh with your crops? Have you noticed a like a difference in yield? Like when you're farming rice, do you seem to have a a better or worse rice yield in a in the crawfish ponds versus just growing rice without farming crawfish?

SPEAKER_02 30:23

I have not noticed it, no. I don't I don't believe that I don't believe it there's any anything that benefits in that you know aspect.

SPEAKER_06 30:31

Okay. Well that I mean I guess it's that's good to know. It uh it doesn't affect your yield in any way. That would be cool if if it helped it some.

SPEAKER_02 32:37

Yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_08 32:38

So Jordy, Geordie, uh Louisiana is the world's leader in crawfish production. And before you guys started farming for crawfish, was it just guys out in the swamps putting out traps?

SPEAKER_02 32:50

Uh yeah, I mean, I remember years ago when I was a little kid, my dad and my grandpa farmed, and they had 40 acre little crawfish pond, and they would just do that really for them to eat it, and they'd sell a few on the side or whatever. But and and nobody really crawfished around here. It's just rice and soybeans rotation. And then, you know, every year it kind of increased a little bit, a little bit, and you know, within the past 10 years it exploded. I I think mainly because you know the the rice got so expensive to grow, and you know, the prices just dropped, expenses went up. So a lot of people went to crawfish to make up for that. And uh, I mean now everywhere you go now, there's crawfish ponds all over the side of the road. Uh I mean it's just crazy.

SPEAKER_04 33:42

Well, it's it's um I hate to bring it all up about that, but it seems like to me it it is more environmentally friendly because you're have you're able to skip herbicides because they eat all your weeds up for you. That seems to be a very cool thing for the environment.

SPEAKER_06 34:00

Yeah, and it, you know, it may not make a difference in the yield, but you know, maybe it helps with your prep uh in the spring. You may have a cleaner field that you don't, you know, don't have to disc up as much or whatever. Um to you know, you're you're making that instead of having to wait for that rice stubble to decompose, the the crawl daddies are eating all that.

SPEAKER_02 34:20

That's right. Yep. They'll clean it up for you. So I mean, since I was yeah, I can remember, you know, three years old, riding on the combines and tractors, and always kind of being on the farm. Um uh I mean high school I helped out a little bit, and then when I went to college, you say four years I was away from it. And then I graduated, came back and started in uh 2010, I want to say as my first crop. But um, yeah, watching them over the years, you know, they showed me uh set you know different things and and then I learned a lot on my own. Uh uh, you know.

SPEAKER_06 35:01

Yeah, I bet I bet. What uh what has changed over the years that it's you know maybe made it easier or more lucrative?

SPEAKER_02 35:08

Well uh uh GPS for sure helps a lot uh on our tractors. Got straighter lines, you know, you don't have many skips. I don't I don't remember I don't think they had that back in the day. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_06 35:22

Have y'all have have y'all ever tried to do soybeans like in uh I mean have you ever tried to do crawfish in a soybean field just to see how it would work?

SPEAKER_02 35:31

No, never tried, but there's not enough, you know, when you cut the soybeans, not enough matter left in the field. There's some little stalks and stuff, so I don't I don't think it would work.

SPEAKER_11 35:43

Do y'all rotate crops in the rice fields?

SPEAKER_02 35:46

In the rice field?

SPEAKER_11 35:47

I mean, do you change yeah? I mean, I mean, are do you always plant rice in the rice field? No, no, y'all rotate.

SPEAKER_02 35:52

I'll do high uh I'll do like half half the form, crawlfish, the other half rice, and then the next year, whatever was in crawfish will be in rice, and vice versa. Okay.

SPEAKER_11 36:04

Oh, so the har rice harvest and the crawfish harvest don't happen in the same year.

SPEAKER_02 36:08

Uh yeah, well, yeah. We'll harvest the rice.

SPEAKER_11 36:12

Oh, excuse me. Yeah, but they're separate fields. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:15

No. Well, where we harvest the rice is where we're gonna crawfish. Okay, and then where we were crawfishing, so so once you crawl fished it, you don't plant rice again, you wait till the following year to plant it again. I don't know.

SPEAKER_11 36:33

Okay. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 36:35

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_11 36:35

I thought they were double cropping one fish.

SPEAKER_02 36:37

Well, some do, some do. Some crawfish it, then they'll drain it, you know, in May and then plant rice again. They call it green rice, and then they'll do that for three or four years in a row. But eventually your your crawfish start getting real small, your population is too high.

SPEAKER_04 36:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_11 36:55

I gotcha.

SPEAKER_04 36:55

So refresh me, I know you said this pretty much before. So you you can start harvesting as soon as January? Yeah. Late January.

SPEAKER_02 37:04

Yeah, and it depends on the weather. Like I think was it last year? I think it was last year. We had a warm winter.

unknown 37:11

Right.

SPEAKER_02 37:12

And uh I started I started the day after Christmas, I remember last year. And cat we were catching pretty good too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:22

So uh so how far how far are you able to ship fresh crawfish?

unknown 37:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:27

You know, from starting in till till now?

SPEAKER_02 37:30

What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_04 37:30

Or is it over No, no, no. I you know, last year I went till July the 4th. Oh wow. Yeah, yeah. I thought so. That's what I was trying to understand. So you can keep on running.

SPEAKER_02 37:40

Yeah, so I got January through July. They'll keep coming in, uh, they'll bury. So like you'll have your first crop is what they call it when you initial flood in October. Right. And then uh a second crop will come in probably around you know uh December, January, you know, when the rains, when it rains, it starts raining a lot. And then uh so and then typically your second crop's better than your first crop. You have more come out of it. Wow. Yeah, and then they'll just keep doing it all year, you know. Like right now, I got some really tiny, you know, fresh babies in the in the some of the ponds.

SPEAKER_05 38:17

So hopefully they'll bring it on.

SPEAKER_04 38:20

I just I just noticed it, you know, on into the summer. There's you see, you know, stands on the side of the road or you know, specials in places, you know, even bars and stuff, you know, fresh crawfish boil. Yeah, it is. And I know I've seen that on into the summer, but India knows more than me about that. But um, so I was wondering how long the sa the harvest season actually went in through.

SPEAKER_02 38:39

Yeah, but that's the latest I've ever went. So no normally June, June, you know, people start clearing traps.

SPEAKER_08 38:46

So, Joe Geordy, would you explain to me this beaker trap that Dudley described? How how are those crawfish getting into that? Because I was picturing you had like a wire basket with a funnel, inverted funnel.

SPEAKER_02 38:59

So we used a uh it's like a flume, a funnel, or whatever you call them. There's three of them on the sides. And it's just they crawl along the trap, try to get to the bait until they find that opening. And once they they find their way in there, it's harder to get back out the way it's designed. I guess you can say, you know. Um I don't know, whoever designed it did a great job, I can tell you that.

SPEAKER_03 39:25

It works.

SPEAKER_02 39:26

It works. And I know the bait the basin uses um pillar traps. Uh I don't know if that's what it's called. Them big, there's them big square traps. They throw it in the water, and uh, but we we use the the pillar traps with the top, pick them up, dump it, put a piece of bait, put it back, you know. Y'all ever have any water moxins give you any problems? Yeah, in the trap sometimes. I dumped one in my uh in the tray. I'm out in the tray. I dumped it in the tray with not paying attention to the piece of bait, look back, and there's a snake in the tray. Yeah. Nope. Hey, I don't miss, I don't miss uh running the traps myself for sure.

SPEAKER_08 40:06

So you've got some guys from Mexico that are there helping you do that. Do you have to give them a lesson in water moccasins?

SPEAKER_02 40:11

They found out on their own. And and also uh alligators. Fast learning. We have a bunch of uh alligators, so we uh we formed my farm's next to a 3,500-acre lake called Miller's Lake, the name of it. And there's hundreds and hundreds, probably thousands of alligators, got gators everywhere. So I think it was his second year, one of my guys, he they would get out when a trap would fall over, they'd get out and they'd look for it. And he was walking and he stepped on something and it started moving like that. Hey, he said he was swimming back to the boat.

SPEAKER_06 40:47

Yeah, I thought he was running on the water.

SPEAKER_04 40:50

Walking walking on water, and he's never been. So, what kind of yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 40:55

What kind of like uh you know, every crop has something eaten on it, you know. You got deer eating all your soybeans. Uh what are what are things that you have to be wary of with with farming crawfish? Does anything get out there and try to eat them?

SPEAKER_02 41:10

Oh man, does it pretty much everything uh tries to eat them? Uh we got you know, raccoons, uh we got otters, we have um the the worst the worst to me is a be croche. I know what that is is be croche, it means crooked beak in in French. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, there's some white, big white, we call them becroche, and they get in those fields, man, about a hundreds, and it's like they corral the crawfish. They'll push them in the middle, and then they'll just they'll eat probably the most out of anything I've seen. For sure.

SPEAKER_08 41:49

I think that's an ibis.

SPEAKER_02 41:53

Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:55

Oh, Bobby. Bobby, you should have been a Bobby. What's a scientific name, Bob? Dudley could call it scientific name.

SPEAKER_08 42:03

So the the guys from Mexico, I bet they've come up with some really good recipes with crawfish that tacos, taco, that's about all they ever make.

SPEAKER_02 42:12

Like, as far as I know. They'll get a tortilla and they'll put you know, some vegetables and some crawfish with some lime, they'll squeeze some lime juice on it. It's pretty good, actually.

SPEAKER_04 42:24

And hot and hot sauce, like you. A lot of hot sauce.

SPEAKER_02 42:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 42:27

Yep.

SPEAKER_08 42:28

Yeah. All right, Vandy. I know you got some questions. I've been asking my questions all along. Lanny, what about you? Um, this morning you were so full of questions.

SPEAKER_11 42:40

Yeah, are there any other crops that are rotated with crawfish, such as rice? I know they plant some Sudan grass, is what it's called. Sudan. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:50

I went to a friend of mine, it's been a long time and he had farming crawfish. Yeah, and they they planted it not to harvest the sort of waterfowl. It's just for food. No, but they planted it for the crawfish, yeah.

SPEAKER_11 43:03

And I think it's a good waterfowl forage, too.

SPEAKER_04 43:05

Yeah, it's pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. It's good for the water. That's what I was that's what I was wondering was. We were there duck hunting, that's why. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 43:11

Oh, I I I do have one question. Uh are they affected by like really cold freezes or late freezes or anything like that? You know, like when whenever, what was it last year or year before last year? Yeah, before we had a record temperature drop. Single-digit temps, uh, you know, late later in the or early in the year, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 43:31

Um, well, it all depends on your water. So if you if your water is real shallow, you know, say three or four inches maybe, and something like that happens and it freezes close to the bottom, I think it'll it'll hurt it then. But like we'll keep ours, try to try to maintain about a two-foot flood, you know, 24 inches or so. I got you. So the deeper your water, you know, the they find. Like, I mean, it didn't affect me at all, that cold weather.

SPEAKER_08 43:59

Yeah, so they probably burrow in the mud. They do.

SPEAKER_02 44:02

They'll get in that mud, they'll get under the mud and and and kind of insulate themselves.

SPEAKER_04 44:06

Yeah, we've been getting some cold, cold snaps, but it's been snaps. You know, it doesn't last long. Yeah. I can remember some winters when it was below freezing for like, I remember the creeks, even though they were flowing, were almost frozen completely.

SPEAKER_02 44:19

Not long ago, it froze, it stayed frozen for a week straight, I remember. Maybe three three years ago, maybe? I just remember, man, they had ice in the trees for at least five days. And it wouldn't melt.

SPEAKER_04 44:32

Yeah, we it's been a while, but I remember that too.

SPEAKER_06 44:36

So it's as far as your business goes, uh, I mean, are you do you like partner with other farmers that where you you process them at at a facility and they do all the shipping for you? I mean, like, do you sell it to a wholesaler or are you just like going direct?

SPEAKER_02 44:54

I'm going to the wholesaler. So I got a guy in Vilplat uh I've been dealing with since I started, and uh and we catch them, we bring them all to him, and he's he's about selling them. It's pretty simple, you know. That way.

SPEAKER_08 45:08

Yeah. It's amazing. You know, it there's three or four places around the highway on a Saturday afternoon that are that you can go get crawfish around. And they are so good.

SPEAKER_11 45:18

It's a big thing for springtime.

SPEAKER_08 45:19

But look, Jordy, I want to ask, because look, I don't know. And Richie wanted me to ask this question, so I'm gonna ask it for Richie.

SPEAKER_07 45:25

But do not blame it on me.

SPEAKER_08 45:26

The whole purging process, don't you need to get the waste matter out of that crawfish before you eat it? And then could you explain about when you peel a crawfish? Do you pull that little veiny looking thing out or do you just eat that?

SPEAKER_02 45:40

I mean, I eat it, but my wife doesn't like it too much. Um I mean, I I like I stuck, I even stuck the heads, you know. So uh that doesn't bother me. But purging, I mean, if what what I like to do is just I'll I'll let them sit in water, you know, put it put some water over them, kind of let them sit for a little while, drain it, put some more water until I do that, I repeat it until the water is crystal clear. You know, you can see it cleans them all off, and and I don't know. I I really uh well what they call it over here the the poopoodon or that little vein. Yeah, I mean just eat it.

SPEAKER_11 46:20

It's Mike It ain't that big a deal.

SPEAKER_10 46:23

It's quite that big a deal. It's vitamins, Bobby. That's right. It is just like yellow fat in the head.

SPEAKER_05 46:29

That's why you want to make sure you you cook them thoroughly.

SPEAKER_06 46:31

So I will say that our friends at LSU did a study a couple years ago. And uh purging, he nailed it. You know, purging is not necessary, you just want to wash any debris off of them, dirt off of the outside of them.

SPEAKER_09 46:45

Yeah. So well, I mean, purging is really a myth. Like it that they don't throw up. Put salt in the water, it doesn't do anything. You're just wasting salt. But um you all you're trying to do is clean the mud out from under the tail and everything.

SPEAKER_06 46:59

I like the head parts so much that uh not only do I suck the head, I stick my finger in there and pry the orange stuff out and eat that.

SPEAKER_08 47:11

Yeah. That gets perched pretty good Monday night.

SPEAKER_09 47:13

Look, if if that if that uh if that causes cancer, then we're probably all gonna have it, whatever it is.

SPEAKER_11 47:19

Oh, crawfish fat's good for you. Gotta be gotta be. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 47:22

So if you're if you're at a crawfish bowl and there's a bunch on the table, what size are you going for? You like the big ones, the medium ones, or the small ones?

SPEAKER_02 47:30

I mean, I'm I'm picking big first. I don't know. I always did that and kind of work your way down, and then when they get too small, sometimes we just kind of throw that to the side and get another batch.

SPEAKER_04 47:41

That's that's the thing about crawfish. If you hadn't never had them before, you can, you know, typically there's a big old huge long table and they just spread them out over, and you got, you know, whatever corn and sausage and other things in there with some potatoes that are delicious. But I never fill up because it takes even, you know, I'm sure you can really eat them fast, but even then it takes time to pop one open, eat it, the next one. And by the time you're about you got some space by the time you've eaten enough to fill you up, you've you've already processed something. Yeah, that's like I'd never fill up with crawfish, no matter how much.

SPEAKER_09 48:15

That's where the uh that's where the ten or twelve beers come in to help fill in the fish. Offset those gaps. That's right. So wait, what look, or as you said, beverages. Good good question for you, uh, being the crawfish man. What what goes in the crawfish bowl? There you go.

SPEAKER_02 48:30

Well, I'll use uh a sea uh dry seasoning called Rosie Joe's is my favorite. They make it around here. Rosie Joe's. Yeah, I'll put uh and I I don't I don't measure it, I don't have it down to a size. I just I'll dump a cup two bags, so I'm I'm thinking uh about two pounds of that dry seasoning in my water with one bottle of the liquid. I'll put that in there with once they boil, I'll I'll squeeze lemons in them and I'll put a couple sticks of butter and just I'll let that just Kind of soak for about 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_09 49:07

I mean, I I see a lot of people doing this two-pot method now where they you boil them in one and then soak them in the other while you're rotating another batch.

SPEAKER_02 49:14

Yeah, I know I know like in restaurants to to you know keep them going quick, that that's that's how they do it.

SPEAKER_09 49:22

So you're not cooling down one pot and then having to heat it back up for another batch.

SPEAKER_06 49:26

So um what is the secret? Like I know with shrimp, you you know, you dump them in there and you basically right when it starts trying to come back to a boil, you just turn it off, right? What what do you do with crawfish?

SPEAKER_02 49:40

Well, that's what's pretty much what I do. Well, I'll I'll get it to a boil, I'll put them in, and once it starts rolling ball coming to a rolling boil, I'll I'll just turn them off.

SPEAKER_06 49:52

And do you it it's do you add ice or uh yeah, I I like to let them soak.

SPEAKER_02 49:57

Uh and that's to me that it fills them up with juice. So I'll put ice kind of stop the the cooking process so they don't overcook. And then uh that way you can you can let them soak in that hot water. Yeah, I do use ice, not every time, but I I do.

SPEAKER_09 50:16

So what what what all um you know sausage, potatoes, account corn, what I mean people what else people take it to another level, they put all kind of things in there, but uh I'm corn and potatoes and I like garlic.

SPEAKER_11 50:29

Oh garlic's delicious.

SPEAKER_02 50:30

I love garlic. Um that's probably about it, usually, you know, sausage every now and then.

SPEAKER_07 50:36

What about Brussels sprouts? I've seen it.

SPEAKER_02 50:38

I heard that was good a few days ago, actually.

SPEAKER_09 50:42

So no champion, no champions and champions.

SPEAKER_02 50:47

Been a while since I had those in there.

SPEAKER_09 50:50

What in the world is that?

SPEAKER_06 50:51

I'll I'll say mushrooms. I'll say that they almost soak up too much of the spice. Oh, the mushrooms? Yeah, that's why I love them.

SPEAKER_04 50:59

Yeah, it'll light you up.

SPEAKER_09 51:01

I like the sausage in the potatoes. I do too. Eat eating one of those little potatoes that's been done in the bottom of the pot. So that's my secret.

SPEAKER_04 51:07

My secret, my my crawfish pile. I've dig out the potatoes first, hit them with a fork and mush them up a little bit, and put butter on. So you kind of got mashed potatoes there, and then I'll cut up the sausage and mix that in with it, and then I'll peel enough shrimp to fill it up. You're cooking a whole nother meal at the crawfish table now. That's right. That's what I'm doing. It is the crawfish and the sausage and potatoes are five-star.

SPEAKER_06 51:31

Uh I will mention one thing that I have had that I wasn't a huge fan of, and that was putting oysters in there.

SPEAKER_09 51:39

I'm not down with that either.

SPEAKER_06 51:40

It uh just in the shell. Well, yeah, I mean, and it cooks them in the shell, and then the shell's real easy to open, and you eat the oyster out of it.

SPEAKER_09 51:49

But they just get overcooked in there.

SPEAKER_06 53:47

And they don't yeah, I would much rather have them in a different waste of good oysters.

SPEAKER_04 53:52

Crawfish cooked like he knows how to cook them or venty or so good. Why mess with it? Exactly.

SPEAKER_06 53:58

That's what you know, he he puts less stuff in there.

SPEAKER_09 54:01

I I'm perfectly fine with adding all the vegetables you want in there, you know, eat what you want out of there. But if you if you soak them right and they're easy to peel, then that's that's it.

SPEAKER_11 54:12

That's a win. And you know he hit the nail on the head with butter. I mean, it can never go wrong with butter, you know what I mean. You know, I don't have butter.

SPEAKER_09 54:20

Show me a dish where you never make it.

SPEAKER_06 54:24

Um and the the restaurant I used to work at in the Mississippi Delta was called Crawdads, so we served a lot of crawfish. Yeah, oh pro over here when they would get drained and dumped into an ice chest. They had uh it was a uh it was a blend of Tony casheries that I've never seen on the shelf before. I I don't I don't remember what color it was, but I've never seen it at a store. But they would dump a bunch of that into the ice chest with the crawfish. So and let them steam in there when you were eating your crawfish, it would get on your hands, and I guess so it makes it.

SPEAKER_09 54:58

It just makes it makes your fingers spicy, is all it is.

SPEAKER_06 55:01

It does do that. Some people do that, some people don't.

SPEAKER_09 55:04

Yeah, I don't yeah.

SPEAKER_11 55:06

Be careful if you like wipe your eyes or you know, oh yeah. Go to the restroom.

SPEAKER_08 55:10

So you know what one thing that's interesting, there are crawfish, crayfish up north, maybe the all over the United States. I mean, we had Jim Zumbo talking about catching crayfish. I've caught some in Wyoming. And so, like up north, uh where the smallmouth bass are king, crayfish as they're called up there. Crawfish. Crawfish here, crayfish that just because they say that doesn't make it right. I will I'm just trying to appeal to our Tom. Tom, I was thinking the same thing. For smallmouth bass. Yeah, it's just a big part of their diet. If Kevin Van Dam was here, he would he would agree with me, I think.

SPEAKER_04 55:47

Me and Kevin and Kevin Van Damme can catch fish in a bucket.

SPEAKER_06 55:50

Uh when I was a kid, we would go to the White River uh trout fishing in the summer and fishing off the bank, we would turn rocks over and catch little baby crawfish and just put the tail meat on the hook. And trout loved that.

SPEAKER_08 56:06

You know, it's interesting that a crawfish crawls forward, but if he wants to escape, he goes backwards. Backwards quickly. Yeah, very fast. You're right. What else should we be asking you, Jordan?

SPEAKER_02 56:16

Sure, that's a that's questions I saw y'all. I'm just here to answer. That's your job.

SPEAKER_10 56:23

Oh gosh, yeah, I know you got one more.

SPEAKER_04 56:25

I've asked them already. I mean, I guess my other question would be yeah, I mean, when does your distributor have a truck coming through here? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:34

That was gonna be my question to y'all. How much crawfish do y'all have down there?

SPEAKER_11 56:38

Oh, I don't we eat a lot. We eat a lot. I mean, we we're lucky we got a little local place.

SPEAKER_04 56:43

We have a local restaurant specializing in they actually, I guess they got to freeze them. He's really good friends with Bandy. Um, but they serve them 12 months out of the year. I mean, and they're so good.

SPEAKER_08 56:54

That's incredible.

SPEAKER_04 56:55

And fried crawfish are fried crawfish and barbecue crawfish, which I don't think there's another recipe quite like this that I've ever seen on barbecued ones.

SPEAKER_06 57:04

Oh, you're talking about at Anthony's? Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 57:06

So he's a ton of crawfish. He just fries the tail meat and then tosses them in barbecue sauce and that's serves it with a ball of the case. Well, I'll tell you what they do.

SPEAKER_04 57:14

I hate to give it a secret. He makes his blue cheese sauce by really good blue cheese crumbles in a ranch, a homemade ranch. So it's just so it's blue cheesy, but got that great creaminess to it. And man, the crawfie's too good in them.

SPEAKER_09 57:27

My favorite way to get them is if they're not too busy, they'll they'll do it, but get them to toss them in buffalo sauce instead of barbecue sauce, and that is so good.

SPEAKER_08 57:36

Oh, I bet that is. Yeah. Hooters used to have buffalo shores. I wouldn't have Mr. Black card holder over there. So, Geordie, the a lot of the gas stations around here sell them on Saturdays. In the parking lot. Yeah, and and they're$4.99 to$6.99 a pound, just depending on the inflation setting. Well, so I got some last weekend. They were$5.99. Is is is that about well, you think that's fair?

SPEAKER_02 58:02

You think No, I think you're you're getting a banana, like they say.

SPEAKER_07 58:09

I knew it.

SPEAKER_02 58:10

We getting$1.50 over here.

SPEAKER_06 58:14

When you drive down and get some crawfish. So that's for that's for already cooked boiled crawfish.

SPEAKER_02 58:20

Oh no, y'all talking boiled?

SPEAKER_06 58:22

Yeah, we're talking about when you're buying them ready to eat.

SPEAKER_02 58:25

I had some in Houston over the weekend, and they were I think it was around five dollars a pound. Yeah, you go buy it.

SPEAKER_03 58:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_11 58:34

So they're not getting a banana bad as you were thinking. You only get a banana off. You're just getting a timid banana.

SPEAKER_10 58:41

That's that's fair.

SPEAKER_06 58:44

Oh my goodness. No, but I mean, yeah, there's probably two places in West Point that serve them. Uh yeah, California places and Cal Cola.

SPEAKER_04 58:55

So, you know, if you remember the creative genius of Bob Dixon, we were caught fish catching them out at Carsi's in a canal. Yeah. We used to uh those uh there were these kind of net traps where they had like wire across two ways, and so you would just run a pole out there and just pick it up real quick, and we had when we bait them, you'd tie a chicken neck in them.

SPEAKER_11 59:15

Yeah, put chicken necks up.

SPEAKER_04 59:16

And I mean, you could pick that thing up and be so heavy you could barely pick it up, it'd be so mean.

SPEAKER_11 59:20

But he he amped his game up. He was taking waterfowl impoundments and then catching crawfish in them because he he ended up buying traps like they were talking about at one point.

SPEAKER_10 59:27

Yeah, and and but we'd catch enough crawfish to have a bowl. It'd be always work. Yeah, it was not fill up ice. It'd take all day.

SPEAKER_09 59:34

But no, I mean it it whenever we drain some of or when we used to drain some of our waterfish. We should toss some traps out.

SPEAKER_04 59:41

Yeah, it's crazy. It must be very versatile because I've I got if it's a wet year and my yard's pretty almost flat where my yard is, there'll be crawled holes everywhere. I live on chimneys. I live on that crawfish ground anyways.

SPEAKER_09 59:54

Yep. Um I feel like if if we put a bunch of traps out, we'd have a bunch of cotton mouse and and cages.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:00

Well, yeah, that'd be fun too. Um for somebody. So listeners need to keep in mind that you know crawfish can get invasive. So uh don't don't release, don't get a bag of crawfish and just release them anywhere. Uh you know, like there's lakes in Arizona that have the this Louisiana version of crawfish that have just gotten invasive and out of hand.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:22

So uh leave it to the professionals.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:24

You know, yeah, leave it to the professionals.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:26

Uh sounds like they need more than that.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:28

But if you if you do have a lot of them already, take advantage of them. Yeah, but you can't. You can order these little traps online. Uh, we've got a friend Land. He he does that around here, just go goes to little swamps and things and catches them and eats them.

SPEAKER_08 1:00:42

Well, why don't we why don't we turn it over to Richie? Let's ask him a trivia question.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:46

All right. So uh you how big are you on uh bowl of peanuts there, Jordy?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:52

I like them. I do not bat. Um yeah, we love them. Y'all eat them up there?

SPEAKER_08 1:00:58

Yeah, and you probably you know, you go by a gas station down there somewhere. Do they buy the peanut patch uh that's our guys? That's our guys. We love them. Bubba, our buddy.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:07

Yeah. I'm gonna have to throw that in my crawfish ball next time.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:11

Hey, yeah, no doubt. Yeah. So so we had a listener who left a review on Spotify, Carson Darnell, uh, listened to episode 433, Turkey Season Update. Fantastic fantastic episode. Me and the boys love sitting around soaking it all in. Golly. That's just nice. That is very, very nice.

SPEAKER_11 1:01:30

We appreciate all the reviews. Nothing like talking about missing turkeys, and everybody gives you a thumbs up.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:37

Yeah, what's the prize this week?

SPEAKER_07 1:01:38

All right, the prize this week. What do we got? It's by Lucian again. Man, these guys have been bringing it on in here. Yeah, it's uh plaque plaque master, schoolmaster, uh uh DIY uh in bottom land. In bottom land.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:52

Yep. That's a good look.

SPEAKER_11 1:01:53

So we've they've got a turkey fan kit, they've got a euro mount, and this is a a plaque. Yeah. So that's cool. It's gorgeous. Landy. Bobby.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:00

What is that? Velvet? Yeah. Could you? I mean, if you killed a buck, you could mount him on that. If I killed a buck, it's a big if it is an if I killed a buck.

SPEAKER_10 1:02:10

That's right.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:11

All right, Geordie. This is we got a layup for you, so you ought to knock it out of the park.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:15

All right, here we go. How many sets of legs does a crawfish have? How many legs are eight sets of legs?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:25

Oh no, no, no, no, no. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:28

You got it. You got it. Don't stay with the first hand, Jordan. Eight, eight's it.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:32

Quick while you're ahead of the room.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:33

So does that mean they have sixteen total?

SPEAKER_08 1:02:35

I was always thinking it would. Yeah. They have eight sets of legs.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:40

So eight times two is sixteen.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:42

Look at Dudley. What if there's three in a few?

SPEAKER_11 1:02:44

I don't know. I don't think there's three, I said. Wouldn't you call it a pair? How many pairs of legs are there? I don't believe that. I thought it would have been six.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:54

Yeah, you got it right. Dudley's going to check. All right. Vandy's tipping out on us. Vandy, we appreciate you joining us. Andy, I want to remind you there are no dumb questions, just dumb people. Bobby. All right. Well, so Geordie, we've enjoyed talking to you. I I there's so much about crawfish I didn't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:16

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_11 1:03:19

I I I mean, Bobby, I think you're wrong.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:21

I think we may need to do that question again. He did say six as a second answer, though. He was like, No, I really think it's six. Well, you said well, you said six. So I started thinking.

SPEAKER_10 1:03:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:30

I think it's a faulty trivia question.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:33

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:35

It's like the my cousin Vinnie. I said quite four sets. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:40

Four sets of legs.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:42

That's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:43

Yeah. They have a tough if you count the front claws, that is ten. Oh, but they're called.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:50

You didn't say claws. You said that's a that's their arms as claws.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:53

So that would be eight legs, which would be four sets. Which is what he just did. Four periods. Maybe I got that wrong. Yeah, yeah. So he he not only he not only corrected us, I mean he got it right.

SPEAKER_08 1:04:05

Yes. That's correct. And corrected us. We should give it him something. Let's give him a thousand dollar gift certificate or something.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:14

He's already hit the lottery working for most of your properties.

SPEAKER_08 1:04:17

Geordie, we want to come down there and go uh duck. And eat some crawfish.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:22

That would be fun. You gotta watch Bobby. I have a few dollars.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:25

I got a nice camp. Y'all can stay at on the lake. And uh man, we can make that happen. That's cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:32

Be careful about asking Bobby. If it has to do with feathers at all, you better be careful.

SPEAKER_08 1:04:37

All right, Jordy. I'm not even gonna try your last name again, but I think it's Vayon. You just try on. Yeah, you're down there, you're down there in sp in somewhere in Louisiana. Why'd you do that, Bob?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:49

You said I'm not gonna try this anymore. Then you butchered it, right? How you said that the first time?

SPEAKER_08 1:04:55

Ville Platte Plate. Can a guy follow you on Instagram or Facebook or anything? On Facebook? I have Facebook. I don't have Instagram. All right. So do they I bet I bet there's not a lot of Geordie, so it'll probably be pretty easy to do.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:12

I don't have a lot of vans either, so yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:05:16

That's true.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:17

Tell them what to look for.

SPEAKER_08 1:05:18

Yeah, what it what is your Facebook page? I don't know. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:22

Yeah, so uh do you I mean, do you have any duck lease opportunities coming up or anything? You want to you want to pitch to the uh five people that are listening?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:33

Uh I mean my as of now it uh I think I'm full up, but I can always find a spot for them, you know. Yeah, the highest bidder, maybe that's a great option.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:43

No, no, no, no. Come on, yeah. Online auctions.

SPEAKER_08 1:05:48

All right, Jordy, next time I eat some crawfish, I'm gonna think about you. Y'all hit me up.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:52

They may have probably this weekend. May go may go this afternoon.

SPEAKER_11 1:05:56

It's a good idea. We should have had some. Yep. Man, what kind of MC are you?

SPEAKER_04 1:05:59

We gotta have them in person next time.

SPEAKER_11 1:06:01

We're pretty busy, man.

SPEAKER_08 1:06:02

We got a lot going on. We're just trying to video some around here. Can't even get that done. Jordy, I'm sorry. This is way out of control. But yeah, but thank you so much for being here. Absolutely. We'd love for your time today.

SPEAKER_11 1:06:15

If you're passing through town, come to West Point A. Absolutely. We're right across from the big gun store.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:21

What part of y'all in Mississippi, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:06:24

Yeah, West Point. We're about 15 minutes from Stark Packs. The favorite of Stark Bay. Nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:31

If I'm ever around there, I'll stop on my way to Kentucky. Maybe next year we got to go we go deer hunting up there.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:37

That's some good bugs in Kentucky. Some good stuff in the country. Kentucky's killing us. Yeah, they are. Best kept secret in Whitetails.

SPEAKER_08 1:06:44

Well, it's all right, Geordie. We appreciate it. Thank y'all. Richie, what Richie, we got anything else we need to do?

SPEAKER_07 1:06:50

Um, no, we got some giveaways coming up.

SPEAKER_11 1:06:52

I guess you say, yes, we do. We got some giveaways coming up. Grillin' meat giveaways coming up just for the summer. You can sign up on the website. Uh just click on Game Keeper giveaway. Uh, we're giving away a uh pellet grill, and we're giving away a lot of game processing equipment from our buddies at Meat and Grilla Grill. So definitely check that out. Get signed up. Um, we're gonna, I don't know when that thing ends, but we've got it's gonna be going for a few weeks here. So get signed up for that for sure.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:17

Also, we've got a lot of moisture now. Yes. You know, a lot of places that were dry are not dry anymore, and I'm sorry for the people that hadn't gotten any rain yet.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:26

Six and a half inches in Monroe County.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:28

We've been getting a lot of vetch and soybeans and stuff planted. Um, and now is the time. It is far from being too late. It is.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:36

Rushed in last week to plant sunflowers for a duff field. Thought I made a big mistake. Perfect timing. He sent me a picture this morning, they all popped up perfect, so I'm pretty happy right now.

SPEAKER_11 1:07:46

Yep. So we've still got deer vetch, deer vetch plus, uh soybeans, uh, spring protein peas, wildlife sweet corn for your deer stuff. And uh, we are planting at the nursery too. So hopefully we'll be releasing some trees for pre-sale uh soon, too.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:59

Yeah, and we've got a we still have a good bit of wildflower plugs left. If anybody wants some.

SPEAKER_11 1:08:04

So Mother's Day is coming so awesome. Mother's Day. They are. Yeah, they're amazing.

SPEAKER_08 1:08:08

All right, guys. It's been a lot of fun. Why don't you say goodbye, Dudley? Goodbye, Dudley. Get us out of here, Richie.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:13

Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of the GamKeeper Podcast. And be sure to tune in again. Subscribe to Game Keeper Farming for Wildlife magazine, and don't miss the Monte Oak Properties Fistful of Dirt podcast with my good buddy, Ronnie Cut Strickler.