M is for Molasses

God bless Wikipedia.org

When the cornfields had been flooded by heavy spring rains and over-flowing creeks, Dad would drive slowly down the road looking at the fields.  Yellow stalks meant that the corn would either fail or the crops would be minimal.  

He would sigh, shake his head, saying "Sorghum this year".

To salvage the money loss, Dad plowed up the fields as soon as the mud dried enough, planting sweet sorghum which had a shorter growing time.  Ground and chopped up, the cane oozed a green sap to be boiled down to make molasses..  the video below shows Roy and Doris Moore of Tennessee making molasses the old-fashioned way.  

This wuz how it wuz done...about 6 minutes long...fast forward? Go get a cup of coffee and just listen?

After all the time, work, and patience spent, deep black sweet molasses emerged, pouring from the tap, glugging all the time.

People from all over the county somehow knew the molasses was ready. They just showed up with jugs, jars, and even vats.  The molasses maker was a man named Daniel Boone.  Honest--his name was Daniel Boone.

Molasses was a substitute for sugar in WW2, and was even used to make hair products (? yes).  Perhaps the least talked about use for molasses was that it could produce excellent rum.  All that was needed was a still.

My Grandfather Cardiff had a still.

My Grandmother Marie did not know this.

There is a great story to be told about that time, a post in the future on  my other blog site:http://susankanewriter.blogspot.com

M is for Molasses.  ***

Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton in Tennessee, in 2007, the year of his arrest

***In England, molasses is called treacle.