Monthly Archives: December 2015

Sorghum Syrup Making (small scale)

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I can’t believe I forgot to post this, the most photogenic of all the stuff I’ve  done so far!  As background, this was a 4×4′ plot of Sugar Drip Sorghum, planted in mid-May. I spaced the plants about 8″ apart, and tilled up the clay with a top dress of nitrogen. All the plants came up great, no real need for water.

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I cut the canes with garden shears, trimmed the seed pods, and then cut the canes into pieces to fit the oil press.

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This was loaded into the hydraulic press, with a stainless drip pan to catch the raw juice.

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After a long time of loading the way too small press, I got a cup of raw sorghum juice. You can see the starch and flotsam in the liquid, I didn’t let it settle which was a mistake. I did use a very fine mesh coffee filter on the juice, but it doesn’t get the starch grains out. IMG_1577

This was then boiled down in a small pot, skimming off all the green scum (this is supposed to be vital to keep it from tasting terrible). I used a wood spoon, there may be a better way but it seemed to work OK. It tends to stick to the sides where you can tease it off and dispose of it, sort of messy process.

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The end result was a quarter cup of syrup, which was not fully boiled down so maybe 1/5 or 1/6 had I done it right. If you leave too much water, it develops mold right away. Mine did this in less than 3 weeks at room temperature, so didn’t get a chance to taste it on food. I did another small batch using later canes, it tasted gamey and I literally could not eat more than a few bites.

I think I need to get the canes at the “soft dough” stage, let the juice settle, strain thought a paper filter, then filter again. It may be that this stuff just tastes bad and that’s why we all eat cane or corn syrup versus sorghum. I vaguely recall my dad buying a jug of this when I was a kid, and that it was inedible.

Plans for next season and musings

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I have a number of things I want to try, based on what I’ve tried so far and what’s left to accomplish. The goal was to grow every survival-style crop, either in a pot or in a small section of garden, and be able to get a decent yield and seeds for future use. I also wanted to harvest, prepare, and store each one. Here’s the “success” list to date:

  • Carrots
  • Onions
  • Wheat
  • Basil
  • Berries
  • Chives
  • Kale

Here’s the ones I am still working on:

  • Oregano (waiting for them to go to seed)
  • Broccoli. I just cannot win, the damn worms strip the plants or they flower immediately without making a decent floret. I may try using new dirt and putting window screen around them to keep the moths out.
  • Leeks. I have a crop in a totally inadequate location, will try again but fingers crossed they may shoot up in the spring.
  • Celery. Grew fine but waiting on seed….
  • Potatoes.
  • Corn. It’s a variety/timing issue, I can get small ears of the painted mountain corn but it’s just not yielding. I have plenty of seed now, but now enough to mill into corn meal. Here’s the plants at the peak:

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Next spring:

  • Sweet corn.
  • Sorghum. Big win, will do a large plot and then refine the syrup making process. I keep finding out what I’m doing wrong, last time it was not allowing the syrup to settle out the sediment and starch particles, plus not taking the stalks at the soft dough stage. I wanted to get a ton of seeds, so I left them in too long. It made the syrup taste grassy/borderline unpleasant.  I’ll also make the big press, the little one was a total PITA to run.
  • Peanuts. High hopes for these bad boys.
  • Herbs in the ground vs in planters.

Potato late fall update

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It’s been a while since I posted, busy at work/home but I’ve had a bunch of little things percolating in the background. The main focus has been potatoes, the goal was to try out growing them in a pot with the option to add height/dirt to maximize the yield.  I initially bought potato seeds, these germinated but have all died over time. I first tried in the spring, the plants came up but wilted from the heat and/or got fungus. I tried again later in the summer, with the pots in the shade such that only got morning sun. This seemed to work OK, the plants grew slowly and then took off like mad when the fall rains and cooler temps came:

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Sadly, the advent of evening 40s killed both of the plants. It could be the variety, but they only do well in a very narrow temperature and humidity window and with a limited amount of light.

As a lark, I tossed a bunch of small red grocery store spuds into a big pot at home, and in a the plot at work. This was a big success, as seen here:

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There are three plants in the leftmost pot, all thriving. I wheel them out during the day or whenever the temps are above 50. The work plants have died back, we got an unexpected frost and that nipped the foliage pretty good. They may come back in the spring, but just in case I’ll sow another row 6-8″ deep so they overwinter.   You can’t see it very well, but there’s a section of lawn edging bent into a circle above the pot rim. This was my way of quickly adding height, I’m stopping at one section just to see how it works.  If I’m lucky, I’ll get new potatoes in January.

This is a new crop for me, so I had no idea how they grew here and what to do. I have a much better understanding now, not complete but getting some basic competence.