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Grove Hill resident recalls days of molasses-making and family gatherings
Molasses-making, like hog killings, used to mean a family gathering. Like much of the other work that had to be done in Southern rural culture, extended families gathered to share in the work. Molassesmaking was also a kind of social occasion. The ladies prepared a big meal, the younger children ran and played, and the hard work of molasses went on all day. Mrs. Knight told me that her father would pick out the best stalks of cane and bury them in a bed during the winter to use for planting the next spring. Cane is planted after the danger of freezing is past. Mrs. Knight said that cane should be planted in a moist place. "The field where the cane was planted was called Jordan Bottom," she said. Her father's farm was in Pickins County near Carolton. "I still own part of Jordan Bottom," she said with a smile. She explained that the sprouts come out of the joints in a stalk of cane. She could not recall if the joints were chopped into parts or the whole stalk planted, but she did recall that the cane was laid long-ways in the rows. (Another person who also used to participate in molasses making said the whole stalk is planted.) Mrs. Knight said that Ribbon Cane makes the sweetest molasses. "Sorghum is not as sweet." Mrs. Knight explained that making molasses begins with the stripping of the leaves from the sugarcane stalk and cutting down the stalk. Then the stalks are stacked. They are hauled to the cane mill and put into a pile. Grinding and extracting the juice from the cane is the next step. She said that this began early in the morning. "There were two big wheels and someone had to constantly feed the stalks of cane into the 'squeezer.'" She told me. The juice was strained once at the grinding process. From where it was "squeezed," the juice was piped down to the cooking vat. At the cooking vat, the juice was strained again. Mrs. Knight recalled that yellow jackets swarmed to the cane juice and this second straining removed them before the cooking process. While cane juice is being cooked in an open vat to the molasses stage, it must be stirred constantly so it will not burn. Those cooking the juice tried to keep the fire burning evenly, but if one spot seemed to be boiling higher than the rest of the vat of juice, the person cooking used the "paddle" to stir it down. She told me that her father was the person who made the "call" as to when the molasses was ready. When I asked her how he knew, she said, she wasn't sure; probably the experience of making molasses for so many years. The molasses was poured into shiny, tin, gallon buckets that had tight fitting lids and a bale to carry it with. Mrs. Knight recalls her mother using molasses to sweeten gingerbread, and for making molasses pie. "We often ate hot biscuits and molasses at night for supper," she said. I recall my daddy taking me once to a neighbor's cane mill. I can still see that horse walking round and round in a circle grinding the cane. And I recall drinking a cup of the cane juice. It was fairly cold weather, and the fire under the cooking vat was really hot, as I recall and must have been burning "fat lighter" for I can still remember the pine scent as it blazed.
Before my grandmother closed her fireplaces and put propane heaters on the hearth, I remember sitting in front of a good warm fire in the wintertime, with my daddy who would use his pocketknife to peel a stalk of sugarcane, cut it into "blocks," quarter the block, then we would chew it. We threw the "chews" into the fire. And we had time to sit before that blazing fire and chew and converse. It is a treasured childhood memory.
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