Insurance That Costs Nothing

Four years ago a friend of our drove up into our driveway in his old pickup truck.  He got out and said he had something for me.  I like talking to this gentleman.  He is brilliant and knows about everything.  He likes telling stories and spinning yarns about growing up in the country and on the bayou and experienced country life, truly living off the land.  We often share vegetables with him and from time to time he brings me some interesting exotic seeds to plant.  Last year he brought us two quarts of blackberries that were as big as a quarter.  I was curious as to what he was bringing me.

We walked around to the back of his truck and he lowered the tailgate.  I thought an alligator or a snapping turtle might pop out.  He reached in and grabbed four stalks of sugarcane.  It was heirloom, Louisiana purple ribbon cane.  He told me that most sugarcane grown around here now is hybrid cane.  It doesn't grow that tall and is bred to produce sugar - lots and lots of sugar.  He told me that he was sharing it with me for insurance.  He didn't want me to eat it.  He wanted me to plant it and keep it growing so that if he ever lost his, he could come to me to get more.  I thanked him and promised I would do so.  I did take out my pocketknife and eat a chunk of it, though.

In 2019, the sugarcane is still growing.  I re-plant it every year.  This old cane is not short.  I am not exaggerating when I tell you that every stalk is at least ten feet tall - some even taller!

Right now in Louisiana, we are full-swing into "grinding season."  This is when commercial sugarcane producers state wide are harvesting cane and grinding it where it will be taken to sugar mills for processing.  I work for an oil company that is currently working non-stop to keep these farmers supplied with diesel to run their equipment.  These farmers are working throughout the night to bring the crop in.  You can see them working in the fields with lights on.  Their tractors and trucks track mud onto the farm roads.  A nuisance, yes, but I'm willing to live with it in order to get some Steen's Cane Syrup for my biscuits.

Here's a LINK to a local syrup maker that's been a local favorite for over 106 years.  I love this stuff.  I wanted to try my hand at making cane syrup at home.  In this Post From 2017 you can click and read where I walk through the steps of successfully making a batch of homemade syrup from some of the cane that our friend gave us.  It was a fun experiment and I enjoyed eating the syrup until we used it all up.  On a pretty evening last week, I was admiring the tall sugar cane in the garden and planning on what I was going to do with it.

For one thing, it is time to harvest it and plant a few stalks to keep my end of the bargain to our friend, and I'll certainly do that.  It is simple to plant.  You dig a four inch trench, lay the stalk in the trench and cover with dirt.  New sprouts of sugar cane will emerge at each joint in the cane.  I haven't decided if I'll make another batch of syrup or not.  It is not economical to make in small batches as I learned from our experiment.  I will definitely cut and eat some.  That is a given.

Earlier this week I cut four stalks and we've given them to another friend to plant.  They want to establish it in their garden.  It will be insurance if our sugar cane ever succumbs to crop failure or freeze.

I like this form of "insurance" as you don't have to pay for it.  It pays you.  I think that's SWEET!

Harvesting Louisiana Purple Sugar Cane (Part 1)

Last year a friend of mine dropped by the house and pulled a gift for me out of the back of his truck.  You can read about that gift if you click here to read our post on planting purple sugar cane.  He had brought some stalks of heirloom Louisiana Purple Sugar Cane for me to plant in the garden.  He had some growing in his garden, but wanted to give me some to start in mine in the event that his sugar cane died and he lost it, he could get some stalks from me to re-start it.  Kind of like insurance, I guess.

So I planted it and a year later, here we are:

It isn't a huge crop, but it is just the right amount for us.  Some of the sugarcane leans over and the leaves are very sharp.  You have to watch out not to get cut when walking by it.  I am not exaggerating when I tell you that the sugarcane is 10 feet tall!  It is appropriately named "Purple Cane," as it is very purple.  It has a nice size to it, too.  All of the commercially grown sugar cane around here that I see is green, not purple, and it isn't as tall as the purple cane is.  Isn't the purple sugarcane pretty?

A quick look on the Internet gave me some more details about our sugar cane.  The following FROM THIS LINK tells some interesting information about its history:

Sugarcane harvesting came to the U.S. approximately 200 years ago, with prosperous mills being developed in Louisiana. Sugarcane was first brought to Louisiana by Jesuit priests in 1751. Here, Etienne de Bore produced the first refined sugar from a sugarcane crop in 1795. His variety, named “Creole,” was one of many, including Otaheite, Louisiana Stripes, Louisiana Purple, and D74, to be developed in Louisiana.

What a cool new crop to grow in the garden!  This past Saturday, Russ and I harvested some of the mature stalks of purple sugar cane.  Commercial sugar cane farmers have expensive equipment.  For our tiny patch of sugar cane, we got back to the basics and used an 'old school' machete.  Russ chopped each mature stalk of cane down at the base and handed it to me.

Commercial sugar cane farmers have large cane wagons that are pulled by tractors and line the side of the roadways during harvest season loaded with chopped cane.  Here is our sugar cane wagon "loaded down" on the side of the 'field.':

During sugarcane harvest, the sides of the road are littered with pieces of sugarcane stalk that has blown out on its way to be processed.  We were very careful not to let any of our cane drop out of the wagon.  So what do you do with fresh harvested sugar cane?  Well, you process it, of course!  Tune in tomorrow where we will have our concluding segment where we show you what we did with it.  (Actually we did two things with it!)

I'm Planting a New Crop in the Garden

Late last week a friend drove over to the house and said, "I've got something for you."  That kind of made me excited, so I followed him as he walked around the back of his truck and reached in the bed. He pulled out five stalks of what he called Louisiana Purple Sugar Cane and told me that it was an old variety that was once planted all over South Louisiana before the new varieties were developed.

He told me that the reason he was giving it to me was partially selfish.  He wanted to have me grow some as "insurance" in the event that he lost his to a freeze or to crop failure.  In that case, he could come get a few stalks of mine and keep the crop growing.

Louisiana Purple Sugar Cane

Here is a closer look at how the purple sugar cane got it's name:

Since I have never planted cane, he gave me a quick tutorial on how to do it.  He said that I needed to cut them about two feet long so they would be straight and fit in the furrow.

I quickly pulled up a couple rows and placed the cut cane across the wide rows to ensure that the cane would fit if I planted them in double furrows atop the rows.

Then I planted the cane.  Apparently the sugar cane will begin sprouting new shoots from each of the joints. I'll need to keep it watered to ensure sprouting takes place. The more water you give it, the more juice you'll get from the cane.

So what's the end game here?  What am I looking to do?  Well, two things.  First, I remember when I was a boy, my grandfather showed up one day with a stalk of sugarcane.  He pulled out his pocketknife and began slicing off the outer portion of the cane and then gave me a piece of the "skinned" sugar cane.  "Chew it," he said. It was sweet and good to chew on.

Secondly, I want to make some syrup.  We love Steen's Cane syrup poured onto our biscuits, pancakes and waffles, and we want to try to make our own.  I was able to find a youtube video by a guy called David the Good, and he demonstrated how to make pure cane syrup without having a sugarcane press.  I want to try my hand at that!!  I will keep you posted on how this little experiment works out.  Maybe at some point you can come over and enjoy some homemade biscuits and syrup with us.