keep this alive!! my generation and younger are all losing touch with how to make products at home, and live in the old ways. it is so important to learn all the basics
Yesterday I sent my oldest son out to hunt a some deer in the forest and not return empty handed, he’s still not back, but I am positive he’ll learn a lot from this educational endevour.
Brings back memories! When I was a kid in southern Indiana, there was a man in our area that had a little molasses mill just like the one pictured. He grew a small plot of cane and I remember a bunch of us (mostly from the little community Church) getting together for a day of fellowship, picnic and molasses making. I can still remember them letting us kids get a short stick of raw cane then drizzling the hot fresh molasses from the spout onto the cane for kind of a sweet treat lolly. We all took home a jar or two of that black gold and it was awesome! Sadly, I think the mill was taken down years ago...
I remember watching my grandfather doing this when I was little. I seem to remember it being nighttime. My mother inherited the property that my grandfather grew his cane on, his bottom land. For forty five years it has grown up in trees and she has paid property taxes on it.
Love seeing the old timers out there keeping the tradition alive. If you made the video in black and white we would be non the wiser. These guys remind me of pictures I've seen of my great grandfather picking prunes in his orchard and boxing them up in custom made wood crates to send to market.
Quite interesting, but for someone having never seen the process, it would have been better having someone explain what was happening in each facet of the process.
Should sell that fresh untouched cane juice, it looks so good. I would drink that. My friends and I are addicted to cane juice. Maybe even be able to make more money because its considered a healthy trend.
Here in central NC it's planted in the spring and harvested in September. The growing season may be different in Louisiana. You could ask the agriculture agent in your area.
I was watching a show that mentioned a Demijohn, and said they used to make Molasses in them... That sent me on a quest to find out "how" molasses was made. Thanks for this very interesting video. Would have loved it if you had added some commentary into the video so we knew why you were doing certain processes. The younger generation may love the quick trip to the store, but I personally believe a lot of the old ways are lost because they're just not handed down as often as they should be. Plenty of great enthusiasts around that absolutely prefer the old-fashioned way of making things. I'm assuming that's sugar cane? And that the cheese cloth filter at the end is at least 4 times folded? One thing this video doesn't show, is there a "curing" time or "maturing" time once the Molasses has been jarred so that it either tastes the best, or has the proper time to reach some consistency??? Thanks for the video Tom, it was awesome to watch...
That is the problem of schools and so called education. Just offload your learning expences onto tax payer,, we can learn everything by staring into books for four years. So we threw away apprenticeship programs and just hire people with the correct titles. The only problem is, it does not matter how many books you read on surgery, you are not a surgeon until you perform a surgery. And not one, but dozens and hundreds. It is crazy absurd. You lock people into profession they mostly knows nothing about, you lock people out off a profession because they cannot attend the correct school for what ever reason. You waste time and resources and people by forcing people to learn things they will never ever need. I mean, it might work with gender bender studies, but how exactly are you going to bring up construction workers and builders and leaders, you know, things that actualy matter? It is not that we have shortage of suitable people, we have a grave shortage of teachers. The society is unable to educate. Which is why you need all those foreign people to do that stuff, that they have learned by actualy doing the stuff, instead of looking into books. Books are important, but it is experience what matters. I do not think you can run a society this way. But what gives, the most important thing is to have free college.
@@kofola9145 I remember my grandfather, back in the '60s stirring maple water into maple syrup all night long feeding the fire. You are so right! You can learn some stuff in books, but nothing beats learning by watching ... then it becomes common sense!
All questions I had. And as mentioned, some of us in newer generations are quite interested in this stuff but have no one to pass these things down to us.. I feel blessed to grow up in the internet age because of this - I'm a 22 year old home cook who loves to do things from scratch and at home with fresh quality ingredients whenever my time and appliance collection allows it.
Looks interesting! I wish this was narrated or that there was an explanation as to the steps and what was being done, even text on the video would help.
It's interesting and cool to see the process, but it would've been a lot more interesting if there was some explanation about the steps in the process.
Beautiful home made molasses. We produced MOLASSES too in Guyana as the country is well known for the original cane sugar called DEMERARA SUGAR, Establishes since in Imperial time by the then BRITISH GUYANA Colony. Molasses is tasty in both sweet and savoury dishes..
You are correct, sir. Here in central NC these fellas refer to it as making "molasses", and have for 32 years at this mill. I'm not going to correct them, but thanks for your input and thanks for watching.
They are using Sugar-cans, crushing them through machine and getting juice and finally getting MOLASSES after heating it and making it thicker. It is very energetic and powerful for young and old people in frosty season.
In my county Every October we have a sorghum festival and this is the way they make it too. Simon’s Sorghum is a five generation working sugar cane farm. Lots of fun at the festival.
i was thinking the same thing as lifeinthailand. what an amazing operation. the sad part is it will all be lost when the last of the greatest generation goes on to thier reward. what a shame no young folks took enough interest in the process to be there helping the old folks and learning.
Man that cane crusher looks pretty similar to one I saw being used in the middle east. I guess there's not much sense messing with the design if it works. Over there they dried the leftover material and chucked it in the fire to help keep the boiling going.
I live down here in Louisiana and was wondering what is a good time that I could plant some sugar cane or will it pretty much grow be planted year round??
Well, I'll agree partially. There just won't be near as many. I know quite a few younger people who have a thing for 'old style' ways and traditions, machines, etc. I don't think it'll ever die, just there will be less of it to see. Gotta love RU-vid (except for these damn ads)!
The process for making molasses is way more complex than what this video makes it out as, but it is an interesting process so it is worth looking into. I’ll give credit to the people in the video making this operation a very much interesting process.
This is amazing, I have never seen molasses being made, had no clue. Bet this is fantastic Molasses, unsulfured?Do they sell this or it it for their own personal use? Look like salt of the earth artisans to me! How nice! Skimmins, ie; where they are skimming the bubble scummy stuff that surfaces when cooking, I do this when making broth! LOL ;D Great vid, molasses is so good for you too!
Great video, I grew up in Quebec with friends making maple syrup. The boiling process is very similar, it brings back great memories! Would your friends be open to having me over to lend a hand be able to experience this?
do not understand all the separation in those long things ontop of the fire.....then you move the "sugar" from one to the other till the end....and by the time its at the end its cooked a lot and is molasses? Love the whole way of making it...:)
Ron Grey That design of the cooking tray... separating it into sections like that, in effect lengthens the distance the liquid has to travel during the cooking process. It allows easier control of the material, and helps keep the juice that's cooked longer separate from the juice that hasn't been in there as long.
how would you make a big block of sugar from cane sugar? Do you just allow the water to boil off and then pour it in a mold of some kind? I have been thinking of growing some cane but didn't know how to make it into a hard block. Jason
That is correct, Jason. Boil it over a cauldron (or a big pot) until it's thick, then pour it in a lightly oiled bread pan or pyrex pan. Let it cool and harden. The hard part is not getting blister burns on your body/hands. Have plenty of ice or a bucket of ice water handy incase needed.
LPMeternum did you know you can eat dandelions? did you know that wat you buy in the supermarket is from people chopping down their rainforest? palm oil. cocoa. sugar cane fields for sugar which could be from south america.......... at least we try corn in america with high fructose corn syrup. but we have so much greens. and theres acorns, white oak raw, the others boiled. theres pignut mockernut and shgbark hickory nut, walnuts, beech nut, maple sap and birch sap, cattails, knotweed, plaintain leaf on the sidewalk, boil burrdock root, clover flower tea, mullein tea, um, wild beans, buy beans and make fudge from that. you can make samanoo, it's molasses made at home if you want. you use unpelted wheat which you sprout, and wheat flour, and mash the sprouted wheat and filter it, and make a wheat milk from that, and add it to the flour i suppose and boil away the water for the same concepto!:) and alsoo, you can take some grains from the grains you SEE. all those are grains. do you wait for them to ripen? do they turn brown? there's mugwort you can eat too, and wild carrots, wild parsnip, wild radish, wild horseradish, wild poppy, wild ginger, there's lily, huckleberry, hackberry, serviceberry, bye gotta go eat!
Thank you for posting this video. Now I know a bit about how to make molasses. But if possible, can you please just explain a bit when the sugar is extracted, you boil for how long the first time, then when you move to second bin on the stove, then the third, fourth, and so on.
Not sure how long they boil it. I know they go a lot by the way the color of the juice changes as it boils in the tray. It starts as a pale green color and gradually turns a light yellow, then finally a darker golden color when they pour it off into a holding chamber before finally pouring it into jars. It's really dark brown in the jar.
