LSU exhibit ‘Slice of Life’ includes Louisiana food traditions

An antique commercial coffee grinder, woven baskets and a log mortar used for grinding hominy are among the charming food-related relics on display at the LSU Student Union Art Gallery until May 19. “A Slice of Life in South Louisiana: 1890-1920” explores the daily lives of four cultural groups: African American laborers, Native Americans, middle-class New Orleanians and Italian Americans.

Among the clothing, guns and tools are gems foodies will find intriguing, including an antique slat trap for catching freshwater fish and a St. Joseph’s altar with replica fig cookies, fava beans, cross-shaped loaves of bread and other offerings made to honor the saint. This tradition was started in the Middle Ages when St. Joseph was credited for ending a major famine in Italy. The custom took root in Louisiana as a result of the large number of Sicilians who had immigrated to New Orleans by the turn of the 20th century.

All the photographs and items in the exhibit are on loan from several Louisiana public and private museums, including the LSU Rural Life Museum and the Southern Food and Beverage Museum.

This Friday at noon, Janie Luster of the United Houma Nation will demonstrate traditional palmetto basket weaving in LSU’s Free Speech Plaza as part of the exhibit. —Maggie Heyn Richardson