Cane Grinding-Syrup Making

In the eighteen hundreds, virtually every farmer had a patch of sugarcane that provided syrup, brown sugar, and rock candy. To grind cane, a mule was hitched to a long shaft that turned rollers as it walked in a circle, and cane was fed through the rollers so juice from the pressed stalks could be collected in a barrel. A large kettle held sixty gallons of cane juice, and it took four to five hours to cook the juice down while someone skimmed foam with a long-handled dipper. The skimmings were dumped into a barrel and fed to hogs, or if left long enough to ferment, turned into potent buck. Syrup was stored in earthenware jugs, bottles, and tin buckets. Cane grinding was also a social occasion, as families and neighbors gathered around the boiler, and on the last night there was always a party. A small amount of syrup was left in the kettle and cooked to the hard ball stage, then dumped onto butter-coated pans so children with buttered fingers could pull it into golden strands of candy, while good food, music, and sometimes dancing accompanied the gathering.

Christmas, Florida · United States