1 lb. alligator meat, cut into strips
All purpose flour
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup hot sauce
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 bottle of your favorite dressing for dipping

Lightly season gator fillets with salt and pepper. Roll in flour. Combine buttermilk and hot sauce together. Drop gator strips into the mixture. Remove and roll again in the flour. Place in deep fryer until golden brown (just a couple of minutes). Drain on paper towels. Serve with your choice of dressing. Ours it ranch.

By Patrick D. Bonin

BRANCH, LA. – The American alligator is the largest reptile in North America, and south Louisiana happens to be home to the greatest gator population in the United States.

Their wild population is booming here, and so is the alligator industry: recent estimates place its value at $50 million annually for Louisiana! And although over 300,000 alligators are harvested each year from both farm and wild sources, their population remains constant or slightly increasing, proving their worth as valuable renewable natural resources for the state.

Alligators are slightly less than a foot long when hatched from their eggs, and females will grow to approximately nine feet long and weight about 200 pounds. Males, on the other hand, can grow to 13 feet in length and reach more than 500 pounds!

The gators range from central Texas all the way to coastal North Carolina, with Louisiana’s estimated population at about 2 million. Here, they can be found in ponds, lakes, canals, bayou, rivers and swamps, with the highest population concentrations in coastal marshes.

The gators mate in spring, and females retreat to isolated ponds or interior marshy areas to select a nesting site. They build their nest by pulling vegetation together into a mound, two to four feet high and four to eight feet in diameter. After laying an average of 35 eggs, she covers the eggs with plant material from the nest. The decomposing plants provide heat for the eggs, and after about 65 days, young will hatch.

A unique characteristic of alligators is that sex determination is dependent upon incubation temperatures. More males are produced when eggs are incubated at 90 degrees and above, while more females hatch when eggs are incubated at 87 degrees and below.

The vast majority of alligators harvested in Louisiana come from “alligator ranches” located here. Louisiana started a program in 1986 which allows licensed alligator farmers to collect alligator eggs on private lands and hatch them under artificial conditions.

Typically, farmers raise alligators until they reach approximately 3’ to 5’ in length. But to participate in the program, farmers must agree to release back into the wild what would have typically survived to the 3’-5’ size class, usually about 12% of a hatch.

Releasing these mature gators back into the wild has several advantages, including better survival rates and consistent alligator production. (If predators or flooding would have destroyed a wild nest, no eggs would hatch and the population would not have had the chance to increase.)

Although just about all parts of the alligator are used, the meat and skin are the most valuable. Alligator skin is salted and then tanned, and used to make a wide variety of items including belts, boots, shoes, purses and more.

Alligator meat is a tasty treat, and can be prepared in a variety of ways. If you’d like to sample some awesome gator fillets, just click here.

Source: Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries

Read all about the Alligator that we found in our crawfish pond!

Order your Alligator fillets today

2 ducks (if you’re from Louisiana, freshly shot!)
1-1/2 cups chopped onion
1-1/2 cups chopped celery
1-1/2 cups chopped green bell pepper
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1 jar of light Roux
2 lbs sliced okra
1 lb. peeled and deveined shrimp
1 lb. deer (or italian) sausage, cut into 1/2 inch slices
3 cups water
Seasoning to taste

Place the ducks in a slow cooker, fill with enough water to cover, and cook on Low until juices run clear, about 8 hours. Remove, reserving 3 cups of duck broth, and debone, discarding bones.
Place the water and 3 cups of duck broth into a slow cooker. Add the garlic, onion, celery, bell pepper, bay leaves, and roux. Cook on high until the mixture boils. Reduce heat, and stir in the duck meat, okra, shrimp, and sausage. Season to taste. Cook until thickened, about 30 minutes. Serve over rice.

If FedEx makes Saturday deliveries in your area, you definitely can! Check with your local FedEx office to find out specifics about Saturday delivery options.

We have ideal conditions here in Cajun Country that mudbugs love! The mild, wet winters, superior water quality and presence of a quality food source like rice stubble here on the farm allow the crawfish to grow to a marketable size quickly.

First, you have to make sure they’re kept above freezing: if you freeze them, they’ll die. We think keeping them cool and wet at about 40 degrees is ideal.

That’s a tough one: it really depends on lots of variables like Mother Nature, water quality, food supply and temperature. We think a good answer is between 25 and 30 crawfish. Just keep in mind if they’re running small the count could be as high as 50, and if the mudbugs are really big, you might only need 12 or 16 to make a pound!

If you’re planning a big boil with multiple sacks, we recommend that you don’t stack them more than four or five sacks high. Any more than this, and you run the risk of crushing the crawfish in the lower sacks.

Definitely keep ‘em cool and wet. Put the sack of crawfish in an ice chest with a bag of ice on top of them. The melting ice will drip over the mudbugs to keep them cool and happy. But you have to pull the drain plug on your ice chest: the crawfish will drown if they remain submerged in water!

We think it depends on where your boil will be held. If you’re boiling in a crawfish-friendly area like south Louisiana where lots of people enjoy mudbugs, we would suggest five to seven pounds per person. Out of state, you’ll probably be safe planning on three to five pounds per person. Keep in mind that all the extras like corn, potatoes, sausage, mushrooms and onions can take the pressure off of your crawfish supply and make sure your costs don’t leave hungry.