By Lil Mirando
The Daily Star
Tangipahoa Parish’s name reflects its agriculture heritage. The Acolapissa word “Tangipahoa” translates as “ear of corn” or “those who gather corn.”
While corn may have been a primary crop for the earliest inhabitants, not many generations ago, Tangipahoa was known as the “strawberries and cream parish” because of its proliferation of strawberry fields and dairy farms.
Outside the small “town and gown” railroad town of Hammond, the surroundings were a traditional rural lifestyle, with cows grazing in the pastures, chickens pecking in the barnyards and a lush mix of produce thriving year-round in the fields.