Prairie Noël

In our 2018 December issue, writer, artist, teacher, musician, and archivist Ashlee Michot shared her dedication to her Louisiana French heritage, and to the land that has fostered it. On her little corner of rural land outside of Grand Coteau—known historically as La Prairie des Femmes—Ashlee and her husband Louis Michot are raising their three sons in a traditional Acadian-style home, surrounded by thousands of native plants they grew themselves. 

[Read our profile on Ashlee Michot from our December 2018 issue, here: Woman of the Prairie]

In her daily life, Ashlee finds ample opportunity to make use of the resources in her backyard, from filling her home with fresh-cut wildflowers to harvesting citrus, figs, and herbs to making elderflower cordial, wild choke cherry bounce, and even wine from grapes, blackberries, and dewberries. 

In decorating her home for the holidays, she embraces the same ideals, finding ample Christmas spirit in the seasonal growth of the prairie. In this tableau, Ashlee says she used entirely “hand-me-down, thrifted, foraged, treasured, or hand-made” materials, including: ruby red berries “from the road,” cedar and crepe myrtle branches, strings of dried dragon oranges and cranberries, and “Granny’s red grègue.”

“It’s always given me pleasure to work with the land we live on, and to use what it gives us,” she said.

See more ways that Ashlee and her family engage with their culture and their region by following her on instagram @prairiedesfemmes. You can also purchase her book, Ô Malheureuse: French Writings by Louisiana Women, published in October by University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press. ulpress.org.