Tabasco – RDZ Photography

Virtual Travel – Louisiana

Architecture, Festival, History, Museum, Nature, Transportation, Water Features

Bonjour de la Louisiana. Our trip today takes us to the bayou.

1977 – Bogue Chitto River. This river is 65 miles north of New Orleans in a park with more than 1,000 acres.

1979 – Bayou. Much of southern Louisiana is made up of bayous and swamps.

2005

The residents of these parts are very proud of their alligators.

The bayous have a unique beauty.

1981 – Acadia. This area of Louisiana has the strongest French culture. In Louisiana the counties are known as parishes. Some of the parishes in this area are over 25% French speaking (although not a French someone from Paris or Montreal would likely easily understand).

We passed through this area in 2019, making a stop at the Tabasco Factory on Avery Island.

Acadia is rice growing country.

In New Ibiera is the Conrad Rice Mill, America’s oldest.

1984 – Mississippi River. The river is the economic driver for Louisiana.

Bridges in New Orleans.

Many overseas freighters come up the river to New Orleans to dock and offload.

The tourist sternwheeler leaves for a tour.

Upriver at the crossing from Vicksburg, Mississippi to the town of Delta, Louisiana.

1986 – 1992 – 2001 – Music

New Orleans is music, food and partying.

1990 – Flowers

With the warm weather and abundant rain, Louisiana has amazing flora and fauna.

1998 – State Capitol. While New Orleans is the center of the world for all things Louisiana, Baton Rouge is the capital.

2002 & 2007 – Food

Louisiana is known for food, primarily (photos from Wikipedia)

Crawfish

Po-boys

And Beignets

2003 – Louisiana Purchase (historic New Orleans)

New Orleans was the center of the French owned territory in the new world. The Cabildo is beside St Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter.

The French Quarter is representative of the city at that time (except for all the dive bars).

2018 – Birds

Avery Island, Louisiana has a very impressive bird sanctuary.

Avery Island, Louisiana – May 2019 – Jungle Gardens

History, Nature, Sciences, Water Features

With Avery Island’s location in southern Louisiana the main agricultural business is sugar cane.

With the year round warm, wet weather it is the perfect climate for nature to grow. In the late 1800s the son of the founder of Tabasco sauce, Edward Avery McIlhenny, created the botanical gardens known as Jungle Gardens.

The gardens cover 170 acres of Avery Island.

There isn’t a large number of different plants, flowers and trees, but the gardens are well laid out, and immaculately kept up.

As with most of Louisiana, water is always nearby.

Including this nice pond, with a warning sign to not feed the alligators (which seems like anyone would know that).

We did NOT feed this alligator.

The turtles were safely out of harms way.

A few buildings remain from the early days of Tabasco pepper growing.

This drive is appropriately named Wisteria Lane, as you make your way under the Wisteria arch.

The highlight however is Bird City. In 1895 Edward raised eight egrets in captivity, releasing them in the fall for their migration. The next year they returned with more egrets.

Ever since then thousands of egrets return to Avery Island in the spring and reside there until late summer.

When we arrived for the Tabasco tour we were one of the few who opted to purchase combination tickets for the factory tour and the gardens. It was money well spent!

Avery Island, Louisiana – May 2019 – Hot Times at the Tabasco Factory

Art, History

Tabasco is known the world over for giving kick to many different foods. All of this spice comes from a small factory in southern Louisiana.

The grounds are beautiful, and the Tabasco Company offers a complete look at the history and production of their product.

The visit starts in the company museum.

The self guided tour takes you from building to building. Along the way you pass some Tabasco themed artwork.

While most of the peppers used in the production are grown offshore, there is a greenhouse that they grow the plants to assure quality control, and provide seeds for their sources.