Sorghum Making

[Music] we're at the Vincent brothers farm today just outside of Sparta in waling Tennessee we're here to watch a demonstration on how they make sorghum molasses [Music] this is a family-run farm and the antique equipment and methods they're using here today are the same as what's been used in the past [Music] let's take a look around this beautiful farm before we get into the process of actually making the sorghum molasses there's a pretty unique blend of old and new and the family is very enthusiastic about using mules on the farm and are encouraging other farmers in the area to do the same [Music] they have a display of mule-drawn equipment used on the farm and have built a brand new facility for boiling down the molasses and even made a new comfort station for the visitors the sorghum cane seen here in the field has been readied for harvesting the leaves have all been stripped off all that remains to be done is to take the seeds off they normally save the seeds for planting next year the mill you see here is being driven by the mule walking around in the circle and harnessed to the pole here you see the workers feeding the cane into the mill the mill squeezes the juice out of the cane and feeds it down in a tube to the evaporator house where they're making the sorghum molasses [Music] they have two mills operating today and both of them are feeding the juice into a common pipe that goes down to the evaporator house if you look closely you'll see here where the pipe is above-ground where it's going down to the evaporator house [Music] here you can see the wood fire that used to keep the glasses to boil it down it's very important to maintain the proper heat because if the hands are overheated it will burn the jews and the glasses we do not taste food so it's a pretty intensive job to try to maintain the correct temperature for the pans just the wood fire it surely takes a lot of wood basically they're corset squeezing the juice up here with the mules and it comes in on this tube right here your juice comes in gravity flow riding in another it comes in this pan you getting started in a bowl and it brings this these Caymans up so bringing foam you have to get it off and then they're dipping it over paying the pan they just pulled them up a fresh batch off and then you take each hand and go through the next pan with your legs takes about thirty minutes no pain let's strain it there - yeah run through that strong if there's any fail for Christ's return how many years y'all been doing this here this is just their first year of doing these things they've been around it and done it for a long time Mike's brother Leroy was not here he spoke bail used to cook a long time ago Sherry's dad bill Howard eat cooked and Terry and Scotty and made word is kind of learning so what we do when we get done when the molasses are done cooking they get Wright State to pull this wooden painting out you take your cake but our King under this wooden tank drain it all out and then after we get done we let him cool down it's like a little cooling process and once it cools down enough and we've got a little spigot we just open it up put the jar in there 100 howdy that's the process we're just like any brain [Music] what is it you're cooking on the woods go right ahead biscuits making this morning I keeping some okay but that wood stove was made in about was it 1901 that lady yes the 1920 model wood stove [Music] Oh now is that good molasses is that good stuff that Suns awful bright in this all your family then I drank it all right the first pair of mules has been unhitched and taken over to the barn for a well-deserved rest and now it's time to hook up the second team to continue on with running the mills we're just what you'd watch how they have to pitch the mules up to the moon what's your mules name you know where's kit a three year old we've got training these they're not not complete yet machine Wow I think it's amazing I saw the other ones going around and nobody had to give any instructions or they just kept going yeah yeah they're they're the oldest music player amuse or six-year-old so they they pretty well know what they're well you can work in without line [Music] [Music] you

Channel: David Nicholls

Views: 15,963

Rating: 4.9574466 out of 5

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Id: JMZBdwz4Kcc

Length: 15min 24sec (924 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 27 2016