reubent
Pro Member
Posts: 389
Joined: May 2011
|
Post by reubent on Oct 8, 2012 21:40:45 GMT -5
outdoor cooking at it's best, squeezing sorghum and cookin the juice down to syrup. I's just about ready to start trying it out. we grew sorghum before but had it squeezed and cooked down by a processor some ways from here because we didn't have a press, but last fall we picked up a press so this spring I planted a little over half an acre of sugar drip and a little dale. I can't afford a stainless pan yet so I'm making one out of some galvanized sheet I picked up at the scrap yard and some fresh green sugar maple boards I just sawed for the pan sides. setting it up under the end of my sawmill shed, got a good pile of slabs to cut up for cookin fuel.
|
|
|
Post by gulfcoastguy on Oct 9, 2012 17:42:19 GMT -5
My grandparents used to grow sugar cane and cook it down for syrup. They had a press and all. Annie Maude used to make all of her cakes, cookies and ect. with syrup instead of sugar. Of course sugar was rationed in WW2 which is where she probably got the habit.
|
|
reubent
Pro Member
Posts: 389
Joined: May 2011
|
Post by reubent on Oct 10, 2012 20:49:22 GMT -5
well I think it oughta be done a lot more than it is, Supposedly the low price of sugar killed production of cane syrup, (and perhaps farmers getting lazy, can't just sit on a tractor seat and do it all) but cane syrup is so much healthier for us than sugar, we need to be using it instead of refined stuff. There are two organizations dedicated to syrup making, one for sorghum nssppa.org/ and one for sugar cane www.southernsyrupmakers.com/ being I'm in TN I joined the NSSPPA, went to the annual meeting last winter. Picked up an old vertical press from one of the adds in the newsletter, ready to run with small engine and reduction drive gear for under $1000. Several horizontal presses are available for around $1500. with one acre worth around $4000 the start up cost is not great compared to potential profit.
|
|