CROWLEY, LA – Once again, this historic city of 12,000 in southwest Louisiana became the center of the rice world last week with tens of thousands gathering here to celebrate the great grain with four days of music, competitions, and more for the 86th International Rice Festival (IRF). This year's theme, “Rice…A Farming Family Tradition,” was chosen by Festival President Kevin Spell, and it proved exceedingly prescient.
The Junior Farmer of the Year is fifth generation farmer KynLee Fruge, the 18-year-old daughter of Troy and Kellie Fruge. Troy himself was the 47th IRF Junior Farmer of the Year. The Farmers of the Year are husband and wife Julie and Christian Richard of Kaplan, both sixth generation farmers. And another multi-generational husband and wife team were honored as Grand Parade Marshalls, Dwayne and Christine Fulton, third generation owners of the Falcon Rice Mill.
Supreme Rice Mill and Falcon Rice Mill, both music stage sponsors, honored the rice millworkers of the year in a ceremony on Saturday morning. Shannon Savoy and Digna Arriaga, sanitation supervisors for Supreme’s Crowley and Murmentau facilities, were thanked for their outstanding contributions to the Supreme team by VP of Operations Danny Nugier. Dwayne Fulton presented Falcon’s Afternoon Mill Lead Joshua Dominque with his mill’s award.
Festival activity was virtually non-stop with two cooking contests, two formal balls, a 5K race, a rice eating contest, an accordion and fiddle contest, a classic car show, carnival rides, a rice threshing demonstration, an arts and crafts pavilion, two massive parades, more than 20 musical acts on two huge stages, and the highlight, the crowning of the new International Rice Festival Queen.
Five accomplished young women, including rice queens from Arkansas and Texas, vied for the coveted crown, but in the end, there could be only one. After an extensive and grueling process, including an onstage question, judges made their decision and the 85th International Rice Festival Queen, Sadie Zaunbrecher, crowned Isabella Hardy the 86th International Rice Festival Queen. Hardy is the younger sister of 84th International Rice Festival Queen Caroline Hardy. The new Queen will represent the Louisiana rice industry across the state and attend the 2023 USA Rice Outlook Conference in Indian Wells, California, and the 2023 RMA Convention in Hawaii.
There were more than 134 dishes from almost as many amateur chefs competing for the title of Chef de Riz and the sought after Think Rice chef’s coat. More than two dozen judges narrowed the field down to a final eight dishes. Then USA Rice’s Michael Klein joined Crowley’s Mollie Hanks, Ginger Webb, and Shannon Dietz to evaluate the dishes and interview the chefs, finally bestowing the title on high school senior Alex Welch for her dish “Herb & Garlic Stuffed Fish Fillet.”
Welch beat out Rice Cookery Royalty and is the first teen to win the title in recent memory. She’s also the cousin of last year’s Chef de Riz, Jill Villijean, and this year’s Junior Chef de Riz Ava Villijean (Jill’s daughter).
“Everywhere you looked the theme of family was front and center,” said Klein who was attending his fourth IRF. “From the honorees on stage to the children’s parade, and from the multi-generational cookery contestants (and organizers) to the hundreds of families strolling the midway all weekend, it was clear rice in Louisiana is a family affair.”
The sentiment was driven home by Queen Sadie in her farewell speech when she said, “We need not just thank a farmer, because they weren’t the only ones…thank their spouse for cooking and delivering meals to the field so the work never stops, thank their mom or sister for getting parts, and thank the kids who have one less parent in the stands watching ball games and during dance recitals when they’re asked, ‘sweetie, where’s your dad?’ and your answer always tends to be, ‘He’s working to feed you.’ Farming is a family business and it takes commitment and extreme dedication from all, so don’t just thank the farmer, thank the whole family.”
Go
here to view the 86th International Rice Festival photo gallery.