Stooksbury’s farm begins making sorghum molasses
Draft horse Andy turns the mill to grind sorghum cane stalks to make sorghum syrup, as Kyle Buckner feeds the stalks into the mill on the Stooksbury Farm in Anderson- ville on Saturday, Oct. 7. (photo:G Chambers Williams III )
Draft horse Andy was once again in the yoke to run the mill for the sorghum cane that is grown every year on the farm, along Park Lane at Stooksbury’s Sorghum Mill, at 514 Park Lane, just before the intersection of Red Hill Road.
Andy provides the power to grind up the sorghum stalks to extract the sweet juice that is cooked into sorghum syrup, also known as sorghum molasses.
Owner Bobby Stooksbury uses the old techniques he’s learned and developed over 30 years of honing his craft.
The dark syrup he makes from the cane has been an Appalachian tradition for centuries, and Stooksbury shows it off both at his farm and at the Museum of Appalachia on Andersonville Highway every fall.
Visitors can see the operation on his farm from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Saturday this fall, as Kyle Buckner, Stooksbury’s nephew, feeds the cane stalks into the mill to extract the juice into a bucket underneath it.
Sometimes Andy gets a bit distracted and stops for a few moments, but with some urging on by Buckner, he gets going again.
The sorghum juice is taken to the nearby wood-fired cooker, where it’s slowly boiled down to make the syrup. It’s bottled and sold for $10 a pint as “Gooseberry Hollow Sorghum Syrup.”
It takes about 10 gallons of the juice to make a gallon of the syrup, Stooksbury said.
Sorghum syrup differs from regular molasses in that it comes from sorghum cane, which grows easily in the Appalachian climate, Stooksbury said.
Regular molasses is a byproduct of making sugar, and comes from sugar cane, which does not grow in the cooler climate of Appalachia. It’s grown in more-temperate climates, such as from Louisiana down into the Caribbean area.
The sorghum syrup is great for biscuits and to sweeten cookies and other treats, Stooksbury said. At his farm, he sells the syrup along with barbecue sauce made by business partner Alan Conrad.
“We make about 100 gallons of the sorghum syrup every year here on the farm,” Stooksbury said.
It takes about three hours to make the syrup from the raw cane juice.
One acre of sorghum cane can make up to 150 gallons of the syrup, Stooksbury said.