THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Sorghum syrup making was an
important
aspect of our production on my father’s farm.
It was one of our major money crops of the year.
In addition to our having fields of cane to
be made into syrup, he also made syrup “on-the-shares” for other
farmers who
hauled their downed cane crops to my father’s mill for him to make into
syrup
in the fall. It was a hard six-weeks’
course of work, six days per week.
Much getting-ready for the work
preceded the actual time of sorghum syrup making. In
last week’s column, I mentioned how the
wood to fuel the furnace had to be cut, hauled to a location near the
furnace,
and stacked in readiness for the weeks of boiling the syrup. If the wood supply was not ready in advance,
there certainly would not be any time to gather it in after the actual
process
of syrup-making began.
My father had to make necessary
repairs to the mill, the furnace and the long copper boiler in which he
cooked
the cane juice to make syrup. The heavy
vertical rollers that squeezed the juice from the stalks of cane had to
be
oiled and in good mechanical condition.
The lever that pulled the rollers had to be examined and the
traces for
hitching the mules made sturdy. The
wooden boxes for catching and straining the cane juice must be in good
repair
and chinked so that they would not leak.
The iron pipes through which the juice flowed downward toward
the boiler
likewise had to be attached properly and in good order.
The long copper boiler, with its wooden
dividers likewise had to be taken from storage, examined for any needed
repairs
to the copper bottom or the dividers, and cleaned thoroughly. The furnace was inspected to make sure it had
withstood a year’s idleness and had no stones amiss or chinks unfilled. Then the boiler was placed gingerly on top of
the long furnace and filled with clear water awaiting that final
washing before
the first “run” of syrup.
There was preparation, too for getting
ready to gather the cane from the field.
If it had been a good year and no storms had downed the tall
stalks of
cane that filled acres in the fields, the cane fodder could be stripped
off
easily with slender hand strippers that looked like two-sided swords. My father fashioned a dozen or so of these
using hardwood to make the strippers, and cutting each side to a
slender
sharpness. However, I can remember,
later on, he could actually either make or purchase metal strippers for
cane-stripping. These did not dull so
easily and made this task of harvesting the cane more efficient. However, if a heavy windstorm had occurred,
the cane field would be twisted and damaged so that it had to be cut
down and
stripped by hand. This was always a
tedious task.
To cut the stalks of cane, we used
long-handled scythes especially designed for cutting the tall stalks of
cane
near the ground. The scythes especially
fashioned, with shorter blades than those required to cut grain, had to
be
well-sharpened. It took two people for
this cutting operation--one to hold an armload of cane and the other to
cut it with
the scythe. The cane would be laid in
piles on the ground, several feet apart.
The next workers, the cane-head cutters, would come along next
and cut
off the seed pods at the top of the cane.
The seeds, too, were placed in neat piles beside each stack of
cut cane,
because the seeds were used to grind into a cane-seed meal to
supplement
animals’ feed--or else the cane seeds were sold.
The stripped, deheaded cane was loaded
into a wagon and hauled to the syrup mill.
Since my father made not only his own cane but also for other
farmers in
the community, he would designate (and remember) which stack belonged
to which
farmer as they brought their crop to his mill for processing. He would ask those who brought the cane to
stagger bringing it, or he would know about which day he could get to
their
loads of cane so that it would not lie too long at the mill and dry out. It took good calculation to figure the time
required for making the various farmers’ crops. But the cane had to be
cut
before frost or the syrup would not be good.
In advance, he would have to engage
people to help with the process of gathering the cane and manning the
syrup
mill, and he also hired other teams of mules from nighboring farmers to
pull
the syrup mill grinder, as the work for these animals was grueling and
hard. He used a team for only about three
hours and
allowed them to rest.
He hired one or two men or older boys
to feed the mill--put the cane through the rollers to extract the juice. Another had the task of keeping the cane
chews (or ground stalks) placed away from the mill in a huge pile of
refuse. A third person assisted him at
the boiler, although he himself--for the long six or more weeks’
duration of
syrup-making-- boiled the syrup. The other boiler worker would stoke
the
furnace and measure out cooked syrup. My
father trusted only his eye and learned knowledge of syrup-making to
know when
it was ready for the strainer barrel as good-quality, cooked syrup. He taught my two brothers and others how to
boil syrup to the right degree. He could
tell by how the syrup looked at the “lower” end of the boiler, and also
would
lift the wooden stirring block and let the syrup drip off.
If it made a certain string to his liking, it
was done and would be quality syrup.
The cooked syrup was measured from the
retaining barrel into pint, quart and gallon continental cans (or
buckets). Later, it became popular to
put it in glass jars, pints and quarts.
Sometimes buyers would come to the syrup mill and buy the whole
day’s
yield while it was still warm in the buckets (and later jars). If we had no buyers, we always had to take
the syrup to a storage barn on the farm to place it in safety until it
could be
taken to Gainesville to market or until a regular buyer would come to
purchase
a load. And for the “on shares” making
for others, my father got (as I recall) one gallon out of four or five
(20% to
25%) that he made, depending on the cost of workers he had to hire and
other
expenses of operating the mill.
Syrup-making time was a hard six-or
more-weeks period every fall. But we
earned enough for paying taxes on our farm, purchasing clothing for our
winter
use, and maybe some money to spare for other essentials.
It was hard work, but a time of socializing,
too, as we always had visitors at the syrup mill, watching the
operations and
passing the time of day. And oh, the
good eating, all year long, as we made gingerbread sweetened with
sorghum
syrup, and had syrup to eat with hot homemade biscuits fresh from the
oven.
Life couldn’t get any better than that!
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
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