Making Sorghum in 1954

 

Left to right skimming the sorghum juice: Cora McKinney, Stella Croft and Earl Croft.  Watching in the background Orville McKinney.  Mr. Croft says "constant skimming of sorghum juice while it cooks over a steady, hot fire, insures a good, clear product - and a tasty one.

From the Marion Reporter, Oct. 7, 1954.  After thirty-six years away from the business, Earl Croft, a Sheridan farmer, has recently returned to sorghum making and finds that it pays neat profits.

Croft is able to sell all the sorghum he can make to folks who frequently make long journeys to his farm to buy the flavorful product.

At an early age, Croft began making sorghum and continued until he was twenty, when he married.  For thirty-six years he was inactive in the business until his recent return to ti.

Croft's mill is located on a farm which is about six miles west of Marion near the Siloam school.

In the processing of sorghum Croft explained the cane is first stripped, then cut and hauled to the mill.  Care must be taken to keep the cane butts off the ground to secure production of clean sorghum .

The juice is extracted from the cane by feeding it through a roller-type mill.  The extracted juice is then fed through three strainers into a barrel, then into an evaporator.

The juice is then cooked over a steady, hot fire, while it is constantly skimmed.  When it reaches the sorghum state, it is kept at a constant depth to prevent scorching.  It is then drained off through a strainer and placed in buckets ready for use or sale.

The sorghum is actually a by-product of the sorghum cane which is used as grain in forage and in some industrial products.