Crawfish season happens every year from around the first of March through the beginning of summer. Cold weather through February meant crawfish shipments were light at the start of this season, but restaurant owners say shipments are starting to come in bigger and more often.

Restaurant owners who specialize in crawfish such as Paul Bellow Jr. at the Cypress Station Grill consider this the best time of year. Bellow, who has been cooking crawfish professionally since 1980, said he has perfected his own special spice, which he applies to the crawfish at the grill and sells bottled to customers.

"It took about three months testing and retesting to get that special bowl that has flavor plus heat," he said. "You don't want it to just be hot. You want to find the perfect balance."

Stacy Denning, manager at the French Quarter Grill, described her restaurant's crawfish as "Felix-style," named after Chef Felix, who uses a distinct mix of seasoning, spices, butter and squeezed lemons. It is not uncommon for big groups to sit out on the grill's patio and order crawfish up and down the table.

"We do a lot of Cajun food here all year round, but it's a very New Orleans vibe this time of year," she said. "Crawfish is definitely a major draw."

Upcoming Crawfish Festivals

Texas Crawfish Festival

April 25–27, May 2–4

The event focuses heavily on the live music aspect, which will be headlined by the Charlie Daniels Band. Other acts include Kevin Fowler, Los Lonely Boys and Whiskey Myers. 6 p.m.–midnight (April 25, May 2), noon–midnight (April 26, May 3), noon–8 p.m. (April 27, May 4). $13 (online), $15 (at the gate), $10 (April 25 only), free (children 12 and under). Old Town Spring. www.texascrawfishfestival.com

Rails and Tails Mudbug Fest

May 4–5

Tomball's two-day crawfish festival enters its third year with live music from The Silverado Band, The Bottle Rockers and Waylon Thibodeaux on May 4 and Tracy Hood and Braid, Bayou Boux and The Mambo Jazz Kings on May 5. 11 a.m.–6 p.m. Free. Historic Tomball Depot Plaza, 201 S. Elm St., Tomball. 281-351-5484. www.tomballtx.gov

From the rice fields to the boiler

Many Gulf Coast residents enjoy the season with backyard boils or restaurant events, but some may not know where these tiny lobster-like creatures are raised. Crawfish are typically farm-raised on rice fields in a process that plays out over the course of a year.

Farmers plant rice crop from late spring to the beginning of summer.

Seed stock, a natural crop of crawfish, which mostly comes from the Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana, is put into the flooded rice field

mid-summer.

The field water is drained and crawfish begin to burrow in the ground in late summer.

Rice is harvested in late summer or early fall. At this time crawfish have burrowed underground to begin their reproductive cycle.

After the rice has been harvested, farmers re-flood the rice field, and crawfish come out of the ground with their babies mid-fall.

Baited wire traps are placed in the field between the end of fall and mid-winter—some farmers use 10 traps per acre.

Crawfish harvest can begin in November or as late as January.

Crawfish season occurs when they are market size—around 10 to 12 per pound—and runs from the beginning of March to late June.