Popping up all over the local pastures, roadsides, and waste spaces is a prickly spring weed. Bull thistles (Cirsium vulgare) go by an old Cajun-French name also, chadron (pronounced shadron), and it has a long history as a spring vegetable here in southern Louisiana. Back in the days before grocery stores, after a long winter with few fresh fruits and vegetables, the appearance of the chadrons was a thing to celebrate, and not to curse. They were harvested and enjoyed as a crunchy, succulent vegetable alongside other spring greens.

The Louisiana SPCA is excited to announce plans for Operation Whiskers, a multi-parish collaborative initiative to address Louisiana cats still impacted by Hurricane Ida. The project is completely free for residents to participate in and is designed to:

Plaquemines Learning Center continued it's celebration of Black History Month on Wednesday, February 23, by celebrating culture through play and speeches. The event was hosted by the middle, high and GED students. In addition to performances, students also gave presentations about influential Black Americans.

Looking for Mardi Gras house floats in Belle Chasse and surrounding areas? Thanks to a big map provided by the Krewe of House Floats, fans of the newest Mardi Gras craze will know exactly where to look. The movement became a new tradition in New Orleans after parades were canceled in 2021. See official map of 2022 house floats at www.kreweofhousefloats.org/map Photos by Amber Prattini Wallo

At the Louisiana SPCA, keeping pets in their homes is a top priority, no matter what. We understand that sometimes life can make things difficult, so we are proud to offer our food pantry services to those that need it most. We are here to offer pet food and supplies to those pet owners who are facing challenging times.

Nominations will start in some of following categories in March with voting taking place April and May... Best Bar, Best Self-Care (Hair Salons, Nail Salons, Etc), Best Child Care and more! Stay tuned to the Belle Chasse Community Page to nominate and vote for your favorites! To participate, nominate or vote in the future categories stay tuned to https://www.facebook.com/ bellechassela

The holidays may have passed, but it didn’t matter to the Plaquemines Parish Seafood Festival Queens! Last year, the queens missed out on their annual holiday gathering due to COVID-19 and it came close this year.

Belle Chasse Academy is proud to announce that it is a 2021-2022 Jazz and Heritage Foundations Community Partnership Grant recipient. Belle Chasse Academy has partnered with the Jazz and Heritage Foundation in the past to support it’s Fine and Performing Arts programming both inside and out of the traditional school day.