Sam Irwin

The Vallot Family

The Vallot Family

Grower Profile: The Vallot Family “They’ve seen the Vallots work hard all these years.”     It’s fair to say the Grosse Isle community of Vermilion Parish is the “country” and it’s where the Vallot family has been farming sugarcane for five…

Raw Sugar Wagon

Raw Sugar Wagon

That golden hill behind this truck is raw sugar. By the end of the sugarcane harvest, this warehouse, which is about the size of a football field, will be filled with raw sugar. The truck/trailer will eventually haul all of the sugar refineries in the state and make…

St. Mary Sugar: Doing the Right Thing

St. Mary Sugar: Doing the Right Thing

When farmers put their mind to something, the work gets done. That’s how St. Mary Sugar Co-Op sugarcane mill got started. “The growers got together then and decided they wanted to control their own fate and destiny, so they invested and built their own sugar mill,”…

Tropical Storm Olga Came and Went; Left Mud

Tropical Storm Olga Came and Went; Left Mud

KADN-TV reporter Philip Boudreaux filed this video report on Tropical Storm Olga and its effect on the Louisiana sugarcane harvest. Here’s how he begins: Tropical Storm Olga comes at the peak of the sugar cane harvest so it brings challenges for farmers. “I…