Pelicans relish opportunity to be in the hunt
April 15, 2015
UPDATE: School board asks for cheerleading rules to be reviewed
April 15, 2015
On a busy Bourg highway near the junction of Bayou Terrebonne and the old Company Canal, a couple shading themselves from the sun beneath a blue tarpaulin have become a local fixture.
Anthony “Tony” Hutchinson and his wife of 65 years, Marion, are the proprietors of the stand, on La. Highway 24 near the Bourg Bridge. Though what they’ve been running at this location for 10 years, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. almost every Monday through Saturday, is a business, they – and some of their customers – also see it as a public service.
In a world of food choices that are anything but homegrown, they can offer you the real thing from gardens close by.
The theory is that if you don’t have the time or space to keep a garden, they and their relatives do, and are willing to share the benefits.
While the Hutchinsons are the face of this enterprise, selling the produce, their suppliers are daughter Paula and son-in-law Leslie “Tete” Lebouef.
It is the Lebouefs who plant, maintain and harvest a 5-acre garden in Montegut. Asked about the relentless demands of such work Tete smiles.
“You gotta love it,” he says. “I look at that hoe next to my rod and reel and you gotta wanna grab that hoe as much as you wanna grab that reel. It’s a full-time job to do it right.”
Asked about pesticides used to ward off insects, Paula responds “We use very little; we plant enough for them to eat, too.”
Ever-changing signs let the passing motorists know what’s available each day. On one day last week they had tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, onions, red potatoes and eggplant.
There are bonuses for those who stop to look and see what’s under the tarp.
Not listed, but ever-present, are the jars of homemade preserves – peach, blackberry and pineapple. Local honey is also sold.
And for those who want to try growing a few vegetables of their own, Tony and Marion sell starter garden plants. Those available last week included zucchini, cucumbers, jalapeno or banana peppers, yellow and white squash, along with three kinds of tomatoes.
Gumbo file is sold as well. Another daughter, Joann Lirette, travels to Alabama for the sassafras leaves and prepares them according to a process she learned from her grandmother.
As the couple works their stand, the teamwork perfected over a decade comes into play.
Tony waits on the customers as Marion carefully writes down every purchase in detail and the amount of the sales, expressing unhappiness with recent hip surgery, which has reduced her mobility.
“My momma lived to 97. The day before she died I told her I hoped the Lord would let me go one more day older than her.” Then laughing and clapping, a sparkle in her eye, she completes her story. “So I can meet her up there and say, ‘Hey Momma! I did it!’”
Passing 18-wheelers honk at the couple, and they always wave back in acknowledgement.
Both Tony and Marion were born in 1930. He was from Bourg and she was a Hotard from Pointe-aux-Chenes. Tony’s mother died when he was 2 years old and his maternal grandmother raised him.
Vividly he remembers when electricity finally arrived at their home when he was 14-years-old. He also recalls his chores.
“I had to clean the floors with a brick and a brush. I did laundry, too. My maw-maw was a 300-pound woman who wore dresses that touched the floor. Just one of her dresses in a No. 3 tub with a washboard was a full load. I always swore I’d get me a real washing machine one day.”
Marion grew up with one sister and a brother and, like Tony, says childhood was a happy time despite the dearth of luxuries.
They met at school in 1948 and married the next year; Tony was a shrimper for 22 years after, and then worked as a tugboat captain for the next 18.
With Tony gone so much, Marion primarily raised their six children.
“I had four girls and did not want to get pregnant with another.” Marion said. “I was going to see this 80-year-old fortune teller on Grand Caillou on another matter, and while I was there she told me I was going to have two sons.”
And she did.
Tragedy visited, however, when both sons were lost to car accidents before they reached 30 years of age.
The Hutchinsons were already selling produce by 2005, when hurricanes Katrina and Rita left salt water that flooded their property and destroyed the soil. A year ago their home was damaged severely by smoke from an electrical fire.
They said a combination of help and strength from God, family, friends and the community at large got them through tough times.
“I have no regrets in my life. I’ve done had a good life,” Marion said. “I wouldn’t change nothing in my life what I done. Together, not just me, not just him, together we’ve had a beautiful life.”
(From left) Leslie Lebouef, Marion and Anthony Hutchinson and Paula Lebouef display some of the produce the family sells on La. 24 in Bourg.
