A couple of weeks ago I saw the movie Sounder and one scene showed them making cane syrup. The folks who made this movie did their homework; the procedure was shown exactly as it really was. Making cane syrup was done in the fall of the year when the cane stalks ripened.

Cutting stalks of cane was a pain. The long thin leaves of the sugar cane plant have sharp edges that cut you as you cut the purplish stalks of cane out from the leaf clump. It was work for men, who wore long sleeves and leather gloves to lessen being cut.

Then the stalks were fed through two upright round stones that crushed the stalks and pressed out the juice. The press was powered by a mule who went around in circles hour after hour. The juice was poured in a long cooking pan with baffles and a wood fire was built under it. The juice was boiled and the foam skimmed off and moved from one section down to the next as it thickened into syrup. It was a labor intensive process from beginning to end.

The molasses was stored in glass jars or cans and was valued especially during the winter, for cooking and eating with biscuits and salt pork. I remember exactly how good it tasted at Grandma's table, oh so long ago now. I think of those good home made things this time of year, when autumn is in the air and the broom sedge, tall and golden as wheat sways in the breeze and fall crickets sing.

susil