Scenes from gumbo-making at this year’s French Food Festival in Larose, LA.  Left to right,  from top:  making a roux with 1 quart of oil & 2 1/2 lbs of flour; cleaning shell bits from crab claws; adding cooled roux to boiling stock in a 60-quart pot, which already contains crabmeat, oysters, ham, sausage, onions, bell pepper, and celery; 35 lbs peeled shrimp; stirring peeled shrimp into the gumbo; nearly finished gumbo, ready for seasoning & skimming.

Today is the last day of the Festival, so you still have time to sample a bowl of seafood gumbo…