ARLINGTON, VA – On the
latest episode of
The Rice Stuff podcast, host Michael Klein recounts his whirlwind experience at this year’s 86th International Rice Festival (IRF) in Crowley, Louisiana, where he had the chance to catch up with some of the event’s most prestigious guests.
Interviews on this episode include: the 86th IRF Rice Queen, Isabella Hardy and her sister Caroline Hardy, the 84th IRF Queen; the 2023 IRF Rice Farmers of the Year, Julie and Christian Richard; the Junior Farmer of the Year, KynLee Fruge; the 2023 Chef de Riz cooking contest winner, Alex Welch; and this year’s Grand Parade Marshals, Christine and Dwayne Fulton of Falcon Rice Mill. Fitting the theme, the episode is introduced by 81st IRF Queen Kathryn Shea Duncan.
The International Rice Festival is Louisiana’s oldest agricultural festival as well as one of the state’s largest, celebrating the rice industry and community with food, music, competitions, parade floats, and more. This year’s theme was “Rice… a Farming Family Tradition.”
New episodes of
The Rice Stuff are published on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month and can be found on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and online at
www.thericestuffpodcast.com.