By Laura Lee
Pro Landscaper USA
Spring is crawfish season in Louisiana. Here in Cajun Country, locals eat crawfish a variety of ways—boiled and spiced, in étouffée over rice, stuffed in pastry pies, or in gumbo and casseroles. Crawfish farmer Jimbo Hundley has discovered another use for the mudbugs—as nutrient-rich compost.
Louisiana farmers are resourceful and have been reusing and recycling long before the concepts became buzz words. Jimbo is a third generation rice farmer and got into the crawfish business about 15 years ago on his 500-acre farm known fondly as “Papa’s Place.” Every fall after the rice harvest, he floods his fields to create crawfish ponds, and the crawfish emerge from their underground burrows. By early June, at the end of crawfish season, he drains the water and prepares his fields for rice again.