Ank you so much! I am a Dutch woman trying to set up a self-sufficient life in rural Hungary and by accident grew a little bit of sorghum. I bought it for the chickens and have prepared it for myself as well. It is really nice, it surprised me. Really fills you up and lasts for many hours keeping you not hungry at all. Use it instead of rice. It has flafour and more of a bite to it but I really do like it. Next year I will make a little sorghum field and make syrup like you did. This year I don't have enough I think to even get as little as you had so not worth the work. ❤
I have been growing sorghum in my garden for three years now (I'm growing variety Mennonite, and my location is Northwest Arkansas). I also use water extraction and ended up with just over two pints of syrup from a 25' single row of plants this year. My latest extraction technique is pretty similar to what you're doing, but there are some differences. I'm sharing--perhaps you'll find the information useful. I harvested the canes, removed the leaves, then cut them into pieces just a bit shorter than the height of my stock pot without regard to nodes. I washed them, and split them all (regardless of size). The split canes were packed into the stock pot on their ends until the pot was packed. I then did a two pass extraction. The reason for doing two passes is because sugar always moves from a high concentration to a low concentration, which means that the canes will tend to have at least as much sugar remaining in them as the extraction water. Anyway, for the first pass I used only a small amount of water and basically steamed the canes for an hour. This liquid was then drained off (the canes will easily stay in the pot packed the way I did, and my stock pot is smaller than yours, so maybe a bit more manageable) and the second pass filled the pot to the point of just covering the canes and boiled them for about an hour. I ended up doing several batches of canes, reducing the volume along the way in an electric skillet. An electric skillet has a large surface area and you can put a fan on it to enhance the rate at which the water evaporates. Once I had all the canes cooked and had reduced the volume some, I added a small amount of bentonite (cheap, available from brewing suppliers) and let the juice settle overnight in the refrigerator. The next day I decanted off the clarified juice and finished in the electric skillet again. To judge when the syrup was finished, I used a thermometer and judged it finished when the temperature difference between the cooking syrup and a pot of boiling water on the stove was 15F. I didn't need to strain, but there was some foaming late in the reduction that had to be skimmed off. I have grown grain sorghum as well. My experience is limited, but I will say that if you get a variety specifically for grain you can get a dwarf variety that won't shade the rest of the garden so much! The particular variety I grew was Texicoa, which is a white sorghum that grows about four feet tall and yields a grayish flour with a rather bland flavor.
Great video, thanks for posting! I didn’t know the juice could be boiled out of the stems. The traditional way of extracting it is to run the long stalk through a press operated by a horse that walks in a circle around it. I have wanted to experiment with a small scale home method of making the syrup so I’m happy to see your results. Here in TN, the finished product was always known as molasses even though true molasses comes from sugar cain. Labeling standards changed that. Next time you have some, try it on a hot homemade biscuit or a slice of cornbread fresh out of the oven.
It looks like it's better to filter when it's watery than when it's syrupy so that the small amount of syrup doesn't get wasted into the cloth and sieve?? I wonder if you could let the sun do the cooking and drying with a thin cloth to prevent bugs into the liquid?? Thank you. God bless you Maranatha
You could definitely use the sun to do the evaporation, but unless it was pretty hot (like maybe a solar oven) I think you would run the risk of it molding before it had concentrated down enough. Maybe start with a small batch. I DID filter this when it was watery. I filtered it several times over the course of juicing and evaporating it.
Mine is Coral from The Experimental Farm Network. There are links in the description on best time to harvest. Short answer, highest sugars are slightly before the seed is fully mature, and you should never use it if it's experienced a frost.
We're on a well. I'm not willing to invest in the cost of several gallons of distilled water for this project, especially when its meant to be a self sufficient on farm product. But you are of course more than welcome to use distilled water if you like.
Ank you so much! I am a Dutch woman trying to set up a self-sufficient life in rural Hungary and by accident grew a little bit of sorghum. I bought it for the chickens and have prepared it for myself as well. It is really nice, it surprised me. Really fills you up and lasts for many hours keeping you not hungry at all. Use it instead of rice. It has flafour and more of a bite to it but I really do like it. Next year I will make a little sorghum field and make syrup like you did. This year I don't have enough I think to even get as little as you had so not worth the work. ❤
I have been growing sorghum in my garden for three years now (I'm growing variety Mennonite, and my location is Northwest Arkansas). I also use water extraction and ended up with just over two pints of syrup from a 25' single row of plants this year. My latest extraction technique is pretty similar to what you're doing, but there are some differences. I'm sharing--perhaps you'll find the information useful.
I harvested the canes, removed the leaves, then cut them into pieces just a bit shorter than the height of my stock pot without regard to nodes. I washed them, and split them all (regardless of size). The split canes were packed into the stock pot on their ends until the pot was packed. I then did a two pass extraction. The reason for doing two passes is because sugar always moves from a high concentration to a low concentration, which means that the canes will tend to have at least as much sugar remaining in them as the extraction water. Anyway, for the first pass I used only a small amount of water and basically steamed the canes for an hour. This liquid was then drained off (the canes will easily stay in the pot packed the way I did, and my stock pot is smaller than yours, so maybe a bit more manageable) and the second pass filled the pot to the point of just covering the canes and boiled them for about an hour.
I ended up doing several batches of canes, reducing the volume along the way in an electric skillet. An electric skillet has a large surface area and you can put a fan on it to enhance the rate at which the water evaporates. Once I had all the canes cooked and had reduced the volume some, I added a small amount of bentonite (cheap, available from brewing suppliers) and let the juice settle overnight in the refrigerator. The next day I decanted off the clarified juice and finished in the electric skillet again. To judge when the syrup was finished, I used a thermometer and judged it finished when the temperature difference between the cooking syrup and a pot of boiling water on the stove was 15F. I didn't need to strain, but there was some foaming late in the reduction that had to be skimmed off.
I have grown grain sorghum as well. My experience is limited, but I will say that if you get a variety specifically for grain you can get a dwarf variety that won't shade the rest of the garden so much! The particular variety I grew was Texicoa, which is a white sorghum that grows about four feet tall and yields a grayish flour with a rather bland flavor.
Fantastic comment. Especially love the point about sugar concentrations, which makes a ton of sense. Thank you so much for sharing your method!
Great video, thanks for posting! I didn’t know the juice could be boiled out of the stems. The traditional way of extracting it is to run the long stalk through a press operated by a horse that walks in a circle around it. I have wanted to experiment with a small scale home method of making the syrup so I’m happy to see your results. Here in TN, the finished product was always known as molasses even though true molasses comes from sugar cain. Labeling standards changed that. Next time you have some, try it on a hot homemade biscuit or a slice of cornbread fresh out of the oven.
It looks like it's better to filter when it's watery than when it's syrupy so that the small amount of syrup doesn't get wasted into the cloth and sieve?? I wonder if you could let the sun do the cooking and drying with a thin cloth to prevent bugs into the liquid?? Thank you. God bless you Maranatha
You could definitely use the sun to do the evaporation, but unless it was pretty hot (like maybe a solar oven) I think you would run the risk of it molding before it had concentrated down enough. Maybe start with a small batch. I DID filter this when it was watery. I filtered it several times over the course of juicing and evaporating it.
Beautiful canes. I just ordered some Rox Orange seeds I was wondering what veriety this is here and when is the best time to harvest?
Mine is Coral from The Experimental Farm Network. There are links in the description on best time to harvest. Short answer, highest sugars are slightly before the seed is fully mature, and you should never use it if it's experienced a frost.
Frost could cause nitrites, will kill cows, in millet relatives of the cane will cause aborations in cattle
ive been growing tricolor for brooms, is that usable too?
Generally, syrup sorghum is bred for that specific purpose. My guess is that the broom type doesn't have much sugar in it.
@@cookingtheharvest thx, i have the african white sorgham on its way
Next time….. use distilled water
We're on a well. I'm not willing to invest in the cost of several gallons of distilled water for this project, especially when its meant to be a self sufficient on farm product. But you are of course more than welcome to use distilled water if you like.
I could have done without the music. I just wanted the information, not a concert.😬
Thanks for the feedback.