Fall is so much fun, it is my favorite! I love football Friday nights, soccer games, cool air and changing leaves. I’m not sure anything is a better mood booster for me than to see the mountains begin to transform into the color explosion!
Today though, I spent a little time enjoying our little farming community. It is a funny thing to go from the oldest person in the room to the youngest. Some days I am pretty sure I am the only grown up within at least 100 miles. Today, I enjoyed being the learner, the student, the one who has no business speaking, but only listening.
I got to see the processing steps of turning cane into sorghum molasses. Suddenly science class began to ring back into my ears – evaporating the water out of the mixture . . . For an egg head, my common sense was lacking when I was young. Now that I’m older, application seems a little more practical.
The gentleman who was working the molasses has been doing this for more than 20 years. In church you would hear the announcement: We need some help planting cane this week, probably Tuesday if anyone has a few hours. Or, It’s time to strip the cane. Groups of folks come together to make the work light – er.
Today the cane was pressed, the juice was collected and gravity fed to the evaporation table (not sure that is what it is actually called) and I listened as a man explained some of the signs that the juice was concentrated enough to be considered molasses and be let out of the table into the bucket. Something about how the bubbles had to look like volcanoes. I found this much like asking Grandma Elswick how to make buscuits. No recipe, no definable thing, you just know when it’s right.
In addition to molasses there was apple butter. This at least gave me something simple I could do – after a couple of “how to” lessons. For nearly 12 hours people took turns constantly stirring the applesauce mixture until it had cooked down enough to make into apple butter. The process of checking for done-ness was fun to watch. Everyone was glad to teach, to show, and to give me a job to do.
I know I look mad, but I was actually concentrating to be sure to hold the paddle to the bottom of the kettle and keep making the “M” so it wouldn’t scorch. They were awfully trusting letting a rookie stir so much apple butter!
After dark, it was finally time to jar it up. The call was put out to the general assembly of people who were enjoying the band and the food and suddenly the applebutter shed was full of people, ready to become a part of the assembly line.
I have no idea how many jars we filled, but I can tell you that assembly line process has been tested and approved. Two lines of people filling jars, wiping rims, placing lids, tightening rings, and crating up. I am sure our line did around 100 jars or so at least. One big kettle of applebutter jarred up in 30 minutes or so.
It was a fine night to enjoy the cooperation of a farming community, listen to good music with tight harmony, listen to stories both true and fishy, learn about apple butter, molasses, and farming. What a nice fall evening in farm country. . .
. . . almost makes me forget there are cows in my front yard again. At least they are not pooping in my driveway this time!
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