iDRY Vacuum Kilns

Sponsors:

Grinding Sugar Cane

Started by Tom, December 06, 2005, 02:13:46 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Tom

Phillip makes syrup the weekend following Thanksgiving every year.



Here he has his "mule" pulling the mill.  This lends new meaning to
using a mule to grind cane.  :D


Feeding the mill.


Catching the juice.

It takes 50 gallons of juice
to make 5 gallons of syrup.

The stack of cane at the mill made more than 50 gallons of juice.
The spare juice went to the freezer but we sneaked some
as a treat.  You don't dare drink much.  It'll clean you
out better'n a dose of salts. :D

SwampDonkey

Well I'll be stumped. That's very interesting. You sure you don't need some maple syrop down there? ;D ;)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Paul_H

Hey,that's pretty neat Tom! Does he boil the juice down much the same way as they do Maple syrup?

Science isn't meant to be trusted it's to be tested

Dan_Shade

Woodmizer LT40HDG25 / Stihl 066 alaskan
lots of dull bands and chains

There's a fine line between turning firewood into beautiful things and beautiful things into firewood.

Tom

The juice is boiled in a big shallow pot called a syrup kettle.  There is a picture of one on here somewhere when Jeff came to visit a few years ago.  We went to the Okeefenokee and he got to see one at the old Chesser homestead in the Park.   I don't know if it is done the same way as Maple Syrup because I've never seen Maple Sap processed.   To most of us Southerners, this is the only syrup.  :D

Sorghum tends to be a catch-all for naming cane syrup or molasses.   There are several different types of cane, red, white, green and species numbering in the 20's.  Most cane today is about 2" or less in diameter and is called Ribbon cane.  I think the one in the pictures above are Red.  My Grandmother used to talk about the white cane her father grew that was as thick as a man's wrist.

Sorghum can be used to make syrup but is actually a grain.  This is not sorghum.

I'm told that there is even sugar in Corn stalks, but not enough to interest anyone in cooking it down.

Sugar Cane is the Candy of the South.  We, as children, would sit on the porch while an adult would peel a stalk of cane and pass out pieces, about an inch or two long, for us to chew.  We would sit in a semi-circle around the server awaiting our next piece for as long as the cane would hold out.  Usually the adult tired after a half hour of peeling cane and we would be sent to the yard to play.

The Juice is delicious and one new to the experience soon finds that it is a purgative.   To drink more than 3 or 4 ounces is courting stomach cramps and extended time in the little house out back.

Cane Syrup can be reconstituted by mixing a tablespoon or three or four in a glass of water to produce a product called "sweetin water". The contraction of Sweetened Water is the correct terminology.  (to pronounce each syllable correctly and to its fullest identifies someone as not being from around here.  Contrary to popular belief the vocabulary isn't necessarily a sign of ignorance.)  Most farm hands carried the "makin's" to the field with them where it was used for a quick pick-me-up much as a glass of sweet iced tea would be used.  I keep a bottle of syrup on my truck even today for a snack in the woods.

SwampDonkey

Tom, thanks for the photos and story. Everyone, no matter where they grew up has an attachment to certain things. To some its grits, sugar cane, or maple syrup, even birch syrup....etc.


Doesn't it (syrup) make you thirsty? If I drink anything super sweet I find myself wanting lots of water. I see corn syrup in the stores, but reading the lable on the bottle suggests it had nothing to do with corn. I can't even pronounce some of the ingredients. ;D Fructose-Sucrose-Glucose  ... man there must be some realy long C=H=0 chains, almost enough to make cellulose.  :D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Radar67

Quote from: SwampDonkey on December 06, 2005, 09:08:09 PM
almost enough to make cellulose. :D
Hey Swamp Donkey, isn't that the stuff that makes them spare tires????? :D :D :D :D :D
"A man's time is the most valuable gift he can give another." TOM

If he can cling to his Blackberry, I can cling to my guns... Me

This will kill you, that will kill you, heck...life will kill you, but you got to live it!

"The man who can comprehend the why, can create the how." SFC J

SwampDonkey

 :D :D :D :D

erm, no. That's cellulite. ;)   ::)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Radar67

That explains why I ain't doctoring then.  ;D
"A man's time is the most valuable gift he can give another." TOM

If he can cling to his Blackberry, I can cling to my guns... Me

This will kill you, that will kill you, heck...life will kill you, but you got to live it!

"The man who can comprehend the why, can create the how." SFC J

SwampDonkey

We used to enjoy 'Woody' , our Woodtech professor. He was 5 foot nothing, Hungarian, always smoked a great big fat cuban cigar and when he'd get drawing stuff on the fly and talking with his accent, everyone was lost. He'd start erasing as soon as he had it all drawn and explained. No one ever got it all. :D That would spur on questions, then more questions to the previous answers, so on and so on. Everyone, and I mean everyone used to quote his famous line 'vu du not know vut iz vood?' I don't know if anyone ever knew what wood was. It was usually one of those lectures like Tom mentioned about lignon in pine only with free hand drawings all over the black board.  :D :D :D If he didn't give us typed notes about his lectures we'de all still be sitten in Wood Tech class :D :D :D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Tom

Swamp Donkey,
Sweeten Water isn't much of a thirst quencher, though it helps.  It is taken more as you might use an energy bar.  Cane Syrup is high in B vitamins, vitamin E, iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, chromium, manganese and zinc, as well as giving you a lift from the sugar.  It makes a good energy snack and helps to quell the pangs of hunger until supper time.

As far as thirst quenching, you can't do better than a glass of cool water.  :)

tnlogger

great story tom now I'm thinking back on my dads dandylion wine fer some reason.
or maby my mothers spring tonic  :D :D :D :D
gene

DanG

Ya know, Tom, I got a big ol' cane mill in that little shed out by the road.  Also, I got a brick furnace out in th' front yard.  I also got access to the kettle that the furnace was made for, but that's a long story.  One day, before I die, I'm gonna grow me a little patch of sugar cane and put all that to its intended use.  Maybe we'll have a party here that day. ;D 8) 8)
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

Modat22

I wonder why the juice is a purgitive and the syrup isn't.
remember man that thy are dust.

beenthere

Quote from: Modat22 on December 08, 2005, 08:14:32 AM
I wonder why the juice is a purgitive and the syrup isn't.

'Cuz you boil the 'pergative' out of it  ;D
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Thank You Sponsors!