Months with R

The Saints are in pre-season and LSU played late Saturday night. We’ll be able to start hunting teal next Saturday. After a summers worth of days by the pool, our girls are back at school.

Shortly, Roberts Cove will have its Germanfest; Arnaudville will have an Oktoberfest, and New Iberia a Gumbo cook-off.

Though it is still hot, it is sure starting to feel like it’s cooling down - not cool enough for gumbo, unless you really turn down the thermostat.

The grass is not growing as fast as it was during the hot and wet days of summer. Now, we should only have to mow once a week, as opposed to the bi-weekly trims the lawn has been getting.

We still have a lot of mosquitoes in the yard, but thank the good Lord; we have not had a hurricane.

It is September in Acadiana. We have waited for September for four months. It is the first month with an R in it since April.

For the first time in four months, it is safe to eat raw oysters raw again.

We like to go to a good local restaurant or maybe to one of Abbeville’s oyster bars and throw back a dozen oysters, washing them down with ice cold beer. Unfortunately the beer selections at these establishments are usually pretty sparse – about the finest beer on the menu may be a Michelob.

Sometimes my youngest brother will get a sackful of oysters and using his trusty oyster knife, pry those shells open at our outdoor kitchen. You get oyster buzz eating so many oysters so fresh and a brisk brininess taste of the Gulf of Mexico. Any remaining oysters from the sack are fried the next day for afternoon poor boys and oyster platters.

Shucking that many oysters sure tends to make you thirsty. We have the advantage of drinking beer that is as fresh as our oysters – strait from the keg, LA-31 Biere Pale. The hand crafted beer accompanies the oysters and quenches the thirst, but its mellow, refined hop bitterness does not overwhelm the delicate taste of the oysters. Garrett Oliver in his book “The Brewmaster’s Table” recommends an Irish Stout with Oysters. We usually enjoy most of his recommended pairings of food and beer, but this time we are unquestionably skeptical. We will try some Guinness this weekend with a sack of oysters, but I am pretty sure we will quickly tap a new keg of LA-31.

Saving some for the teal gumbo next weekend.