Another Syrup Mill

On November the 26 I went to another syrup cooking in the community of Rocky. It was their first year to cook at this location. They had some difficulty like I did my first year but ran off some good syrup. The cook was a older gentleman Mr Scott who has been cooking syrup for 60 years. He did things different than me by throwing syrup from baffle to baffle to keep the syrup from cooking to quick.

Cooking Cane in Needham Al.

  On November the 19 I went to Needham Alabama and watch some folks cook syrup. They cooked different than what I am used to. The first difference was that they ran syrup off of the fire end instead of the chimney end. Also they were cooking with propane gas something I think cost to much money. However with gas you are able to keep the fire under the pan at a constant heat.

Preperation for next year

The work of growing sugar cane never ends. It is a year round processes. Last weekend we burned off our cane patches from the leaves and tops we stripped off of the cane during harvesting. We then covered the cut off stuble with plenty of soil for the up coming winter to protect from frost bite. Next spring we will uncover the stuble and sprouts will begin to sprout from the stuble. Also, we have removed our syrup pan to repostion the soil that forms the draw for the fire under the pan. More work will come during the winter such as cutting wood.

Syrup Cooking 2011

This year we did not run off as much syrup as we had hoped. We had trouble to say the least however we did run off around 58 quarts. The root of out trouble was the draw on our fire under the syrup pan. We had an extremely hot fire under the pan however the fire was shooting out the top of the chimney and was not heating the pan to cooking heat. The syrup would cook on the bottom of the pan but would not heat hot enough to cook the top. Therefore, I had to pull syrup only off of the bottom of the pan with the stoper. We did the best we could and had some good syrup in the end but it sold quickly. Hope to work on it this winter and fix our problem. Also, I would like to thank family and friends who showed up to work thoughout the year and made this year as sucessful as possible.

Crop Update

Good sugar cane crop this year. This is about a quarter of the cane we have this year. Looks to be a good crop and about two days worth of cooking.

Happy Birthday Uncle Elwin

Happy 80th Birthday Uncle Elwin!!

Varieties of Cane We Grow



4852 hybrid cane

Chewing Cane



White Cane







These are some of the varieties of cane we grow. On the top left hand side is a type of sugar cane that my uncle bought several years ago from an experimental station in in Poplaville, Mississippi. It is referred to as 4852 hybrid cane. This cane is somewhat drought resistant and tends to grow better than other cane varieties in drought conditions. Also, this type of cane tends to make good syrup. The picture on the top right is the cane that my great grandpa used to grow that I talked about in a recent post. This cane tends to grow average during droughts and makes a prettier syrup than the 4852 cane. The other cane on the lower left is a type of chewing cane that is soft and easy to chew. This cane will not make syrup.