Prairie des Femmes

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Tasse Cafe- les Bus Drivers des Annees Passees

As heard on the Tasse Cafe Radion Program at kvpi.com

Les Bus Drivers des Années Passées

On va quitter ça comme ça... (We gonna leave it like that...)

ti dis ti viens de la campagne? (You say you come from the country?)

le bus à Monsieur Lee Fuselier, il nous a ramené sur le chemin d'Opelousas (Mister Lee Fuselier's bus brought us to the Opelousas road)

Ça c'était eine autre affaire dessus ça (That was another thing (on that))

let me tell you, dat Belaire don't mess around! You didn't tchiquailler around with him, no, he'd leave you! (Let me tell you that person descended from Augustin Belaire Fontenot (b. 1798) did not mess around! You didn't waste time with him, he'd leave you!)

Écoute, mon premier bus driver quand j'allais à l'école... ( Listen, my first bus driver when I went to school...)

le premier school bus moi j'ai ride à l'école c'était le bus à Monsieur Doux ( the first bus I rode to school was Mister Sweet's bus)

Mister Doux was always ready to drive the bus somewhere. If you needed something you always could call Mister Doux, cause he was always ready to "do" it!

Oh yeah, he lived right there by slap ya mama.

"Downtown L'anse Belaire" ( Downtown Cove of the Belaires)

Ça fait, on est gone charrer pour le K and B grocery, ça c'est au but du grand chemin... (So, we are going to talk about K and B grocery, at the end of main street...)

j'vous embarrass pas de trop, hein!? ( I don't embarrass yall too much, huh?)

allons parler pour Family Hair and Gifts, àyou tu peut trouver tout les bebelles t'après garder pour...( Let's talk about Family Hair and Gifts, where you can find all of the little play thing you are looking for.)

moi j'ai ride dans bus de Monsieur Le Pipe et là, je drive le bus à Pop à Theophile Road ( Me I rode Mister The Pipe's bus and now I drive the dad's bus on the Theophile road.)

on est gone charrer pour Ardoin's Salvage, mais c'est connu comme le Burn Store. Mike, lui, il a hâlé tout les artiques dessus ça... ( we are going to talk about Ardoin's Salvage store, but, it's known as the Burn Store. Mike, him, he hauled all kinds of articles on that...)

La chasse? Ouais, on a fait ein à la Grande Prairie et ein à la GoYo...le Goyo c'est entre Washington and Grand Prairie, you know the Grand Prairie school? Mais, across from that, that's the GoYo... ( a hunt? oh yeah, we made one at the Big Prairie and one at the Goyo. The Goyo is between Washington and the Big Prairie...)

Ç'etait pas les chemins gravaille, non! Ç'etait ein chemin de terre..(it wasnt gravel roads, no! It was some dirts of earth, dirt roads.)

Uses of the French Mulberry

I love the early fall in Louisiana because French mulberries (beauty berries) are plentiful in the woods and along bayous around here, especially at our family camp, La Roue qui Pend (The Hanging Wheel) on the banks of the Bayou Vermilion, where I gathered three grocery bags full yesterday.

I need three Winn-Dixie grocery bags full of French mulberries RIGHT NOW to the VIP!

A few years ago, I heard that you could soak the berries in water in the ice box for a "refreshing drink". So I did that, and it is a nice and hebal drink. I had also read somewhere that people put the leaves under their hats to keep the maringouins away, so I tried crushing the leaves up and rubbing them on. That works well in a pinch. Then I began to make homemade insect repellant with the leaves and berries by soaking them in vodka for a month or two. I also add some crushed citronella leaves and maybe a few drops of lavender or lemongrass oil.

I have been harvesting these berries this year and drying them in the window, giving them out to friends. I add them to cereal, or eat them alone. I read that the berries or a tea from the root or bark is good for stomach upset, and we use the dried berries like that, too.

Drying French mulberries

When picking the berries to dry them I wondered if they could be used in jellies. Don't you know, the next day I saw an article about a family that makes jelly and insect repellant from them.

Beauty Berry Jelly

(approximate, fond culotte style)

8 cups French mulberries, cover with water, with a little extra. (5 cups?)

Boil for 20 minutes until they lose their color.

Remove berries, compost.

Add one pack of Sure-Gel( two?), five cups of sugar, and half cup of lemon juice to the infusion liquid.

Boil until it forms a foam on the top, skim for clarity. Check the beautiful color!

Strain with cheesecloth (not necessary, but nice to get the punaises and spiders that may be still floating...)

Pour in sterilized jars and follow canning instructions.

Follow these Fond Culotte methods to a T, or your jelly may not "jel", like mine! I think I put too much water and not enough lemon juice... so I may have gotten a bunch of perfectly sealed French mulberry syrup...

In fact, forget the fond culotte method, I would just click here.

French mulberry jelly

La Roue Qui Pend

picking French mulberries at the camp

Bayou Vermilion? check mark

French Mulberry patch at the camp.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Cajun Music ECards Part 2

It's the Cajun Blues. I just want to get drunk, and when I get drunk I just want to dance and make love all night long.

Let us search...search...search...

If you wouldn't have listened to the counsel of the others you would be here with me today.

Oh the games people play. It hurts me to see them do that.

Hold my dentures! I am going to show you how to dance.

And then they saw I was mad, dear, they brought back my sled.

Let's go to the Courtableau Bayou, little world. To collect some sticks, ya yaille. To make a fire, baby. To boil fiddler crabs.

Now I got lucky, and I made a pile of money and no matter where I go, everyone wants to date me.

On your left hand, there is a wedding band that says turn, turn turn around.

Every time I pass in front of your daddy's door, your daddy is sitting there with a pipe in his smiling mouth.

Oh, let us talk of drinking, no, not of marriage. Always regretting the pretty times past...

Little girls are so cute, but women are deadly.

Open this door and come her, I want to poison you.

Dear everything.

They stole my sled, dear!

Girls from Ville Platte, I don't know what is wrong with them. They are cute, but they are sneaky.

Let's dance Colinda, dance close, Colinda. Let's dance, Colinda, to make the old ladies mad.

Don't look at that, it's not for you.

Cajun Music ECards

If you always wondered what those Cajun songs were saying, here are some ecards that I made mostly from song lyrics.

Oh the people of Crowley are always in the roads. Always in the roads, looking for trouble.

Dear pretty one, give me that one, and if it ain't that one, I don't want any at all!

Hey Mom, I am always your little boy.

Young people from the country, don't ever get married! Look what I did, always miserable.

Sunday morning, he is all kinds of sick. Pass him the glass of lemonade.

The Mardi Gras are not evil-doers, they are just beggars.

Well look what you did: cut the mulberry branch, so i can see you pass in front of your daddy's porch.

Little or the big, Madame Edward, it's all the same price.

Open that door and come here, I want to poison you!

Go west young man, go west, and go to Mamou. ( For Lu dit LaRose)

And when we get home, Grandmother is going to make a fish stew in the style of the choupique fish.

Oh Madeline! You slept outside! Oh Madeline! Outside in the big fog!

Oh unhappy girl!

We know that the Native Americans have big rights in America.

It's nothing if you tell me no, for to marry you, for to marry you, at St. Mary's Church


You had some, you wont have any more! You had some, you wont have any more! You had some, you wont have any more! What's left is for us!

One problem with the program: it won't allow accent marks. If anyone can fix this, let me know!

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Things heard on the Tasse de Cafe Radio Program

KVPI RADIO

The following are snippets of conversations, expressions, and local commercials in Evangeline Parish French as heard on the Tasse de Cafe Radio Program on KVPI, Wednesday and Friday mornings, 8-9 am. The program can be heard online, by phone or through phone app.search kvpi.
KVPI RADIO

Bonjour! Qui que parles?!
Hello, Who's talking!?

Ain autre call, Charlie!
Another call, Charlie!

Bonjour, you're on the air!
Hello, you're on the air!

Q: Comment va les affaires?
How are things?

A: -Oh, on après brasser une bonne sabotière de la crème...
Oh, we're stirring a good ice cream maker of ice cream.

-Oh, on après faire le balai avec une balai tout neuf! T'as jamais fait la balais avec une balai tout neuf?
Oh, we're sweeping with a brand new broom! You ever swept with a brand new broom?

-Oh! Ca fait la grande course!
Oh! It makes the big race!

-Oh! ca va pic-à-poc!
It goes pick a pock.

...On était perdu dans le grand bois, apres attendu le cris d'hibou...et tout mes cheveux se dressait comme ça...ça fait peur!!
...We were lost in the big woods, hearing the cry of the owl...and all of my hairs stood on end like that, that was scary!!

Oh! Le pain perdu! On l'as trouvé à ce matin, c'est pu perdu.
Oh! French Toast (lost bread)! We found it this morning. It's no longer lost.

On va vous parler garçon à garçon, figure à figure, en anglais ou en français, il vont vous servir comme vous-autres veux.
We are going to talk to you boy to boy, face to face, in English or in French, they are going to server you like you want.

Ca va vous fournir tout la viande fraiche, du tasso, la viande salé, viande boucannée que t'as besoin. c'après boucanner la viande tout la journée que pour vous.
They are going to furnish you with all the fresh meat, tasso, salted meat, smoked meat that you need. They are smoking meat all day long just for you.

Some women take offense to you callin' them cher, they think you hittin' on them. I love to call people cher. I call men cher. I hope they dont take it as a compliment...

Comment ti crois, hein!?
How you think!

Tu conais ils appelent les 'love bugs' les bêtes d'amour...ou les petits carencros! Ou.. des bessons...
You know they call love bugs the bugs of love, or the little buzzards, or the little "kissers"

Rapelle-toi de White Rose Petroleum Jelly?
You remember White Rose Petroleum Jelly?

After Hurricane Issac: Et comment les Pecanières chez toi? C'était socoue'?
And how are the pecan trees at your place? They were swayin?