Sugar cane??

[Sulfur]

Just wondering if any one has grown any, harvested it, or made it into a final product. Looks like it's useful for alot of things, sugar, molassas, used to make alcohol, fuel for fire. Process looks simple, mill cane, filter cane juce, bake on a sheet, and cool (I'm sure there is more to it). Just thought I would put this out there, and see what ya'll think.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

It dont make here, think the winters are to harsh and summers to dry

[Foghorn]

Cane is used to make sargum(sp?) molassas around here. It is kind of a dying art though. It grows a lot like corn, then you squeeze the juice out of the stalk. The molassas making process is with heat and a special made table. There is an art to heating. Making any larger quantity is a takes some time.

I was just at a cattlemens meeting where a fellow was wanting help starting a process to make ethanol with it. He had some small samples from the pilot project. At one step in the process is sure does smell (and taste) a lot like corn liquor with a little tang.

Doug

[trkarl]

Thanksgiving week we go to visit my mom and step dad up in Dixie county straight west of Gainesville. That week they harvest cane and grind it to make cane syrup. He has a big grinding mill he built and a huge pot I think it holds a couple hundred gallons of juice and they boil it for so long. Then they bottle it up. I will have to get pics this year when I go.

They have a huge Tday cookout and everyone comes and brings a dish or something. We usually set up tents and camp for the weekend. If anyone on this forum would like to check it out just pm me and we'll set it up. Sometimes there's around 100 people there.

The cane grinding is pretty interesting.

[monkeybird]

I remember sugar cane being grown by my grandfather in Panama City, Florida, in a ditch. It must need lots of moisture. He would upon occasion, cut me a piece with his picket knife and I'd chew it until the sweet syrup was chewed up.

Ah, sweet memories.

[Deep Operator]

I am not able to grow sugar cane in the climate here, but I have grown a sugar beat or two. Nearly identical sugars except for about one molecule, so I studied. lol

[qrprat77]

My first job 'on the record' was planting and tending cane. They wouldn't let me run the picker. It's hard intensive work that requires a sharp eye for heading problems off (like weeds and bugs) before they start. Also, being grass, sugar cane has a pretty large Nitrogen requirement. That said, once you plant it, you generally get to harvest cane off the same field for about 5 years before you have to plow it under and start all over again.