Sorghum pressing

GNPfatboy · Sep 26, 2012

Pressed and cooked some sorghum cane this past week-
end, cooked down about 120 gal. of juice. Also
pressed out about 10 gal. of apple cider.

Richard G. · Sep 26, 2012

Gonna start stripping cane next week. I have a lot more than I want, but with the times like they are, I will probably cook it all.
Richard in NW SC

Wesley Stephens · Sep 26, 2012

We'll be doing that soon but my grandfather's cane mill has a pole for a mule to walk in circles. We just use a lawn mower or something to pull it though. We thought about using my mule last year but he had an unfortunate incident with a car and it is difficult to get him across the highway.

Az peapicker · Sep 26, 2012

Hope this isn t a dumb question , but what do you do with the fodder after the pressing ?

John

gbs · Sep 26, 2012

old timers would have had a spasm watching you grind that cane with the fodder on it,brothers got into the molasses business pretty big at one time they quit stripping the fodder too,they said it made little if any difference,coarse they were cutting it with a corn binder chop off the heads and would stick a whole bundle at a time in the mill they were using,mill was powered by a flat from an m farmall, the m would earn it's keep when they started feeding the cane into the mill a stream of juice as big as your wrist would flow out of it,looks like you've got a good batch cooking from the color of the skimming's along the side of the pan

Wesley Stephens · Sep 26, 2012

We cut the fodder off before squeezing it, but there's not much use for it.

Leroy · Sep 26, 2012

Good animal feed.

led · Sep 26, 2012

I was always told a smart mule would stop pulling in circle once he knew he wasn't getting anywhere. Dad would send my brother to get a horse for hay press.
Led

GNPfatboy · Sep 27, 2012

We spread it back on the field.

GNPfatboy · Sep 27, 2012

We used to strip all the leaves off, but just got to be too much work, so we just cut heads off now. We press for the fun of it and it gives us another chance to use our sugar shack.

HillsofTn · Sep 27, 2012

GBS, When I was a kid (long time ago!) we had an old man in the area that had made molasses for years. He maintained that stripping the cane before pressing would give a much lighter color to the syrup and slightly less "whang" to the taste.

He said that his citycustomers preferred the light color and gentler taste, but that most of his regular country customers wanted it darker and stronger-tasting.

(At that time, I was hungry most of time and didn"t really let it stay on the plate long enough to check color or worry about taste!)

jackinok · Sep 27, 2012

ive raised a lot of sorghum but just for feed. do you just basically press the liquid out ,and then cook it down and skim the foam off?any rule of thumb about cooking it down? like start off with this amount and reduce it so far?

Wesley Stephens · Sep 27, 2012

A lot of people call certain types of sugar cane sorghum, but it's not what most think of when they hear the word. Around here, most people call it cane and if you hear sorghum it means grain sorghum.

GNPfatboy · Sep 27, 2012

It is sweet sorghum, we press the juice out and start cooking. skim it, cook it until you can hold a boil at 226 no more than 230. Take off heat cool in cold water to 190 and bottle.

SweetFeet · Sep 28, 2012

GNPfatboy,

GREAT photos, love them. Would not want to be in the room with the cooker - looks a little steamy in there.

jackinok · Sep 28, 2012

interesting,nearly all of what we grow is grain sorghum(kaffir corn around here). looks like a interesting operation,i might have to try a few rows,would have to beat the deer to it though!

Sorghum pressing

GNPfatboy

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Richard G.

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Wesley Stephens

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Az peapicker

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gbs

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Wesley Stephens

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Leroy

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led

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GNPfatboy

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GNPfatboy

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HillsofTn

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jackinok

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Wesley Stephens

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GNPfatboy

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SweetFeet

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jackinok

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