My garden fairy and her little boy came to our house and we all worked together and finished making the Sorghum.
I stayed up until midnight cooking the juice and finally gave up. I finished it the next morning. From approximately 5 gallons of juice, we got about 2.5 quarts of syrup. Oh, my, it's lovely stuff!
Fascinating! I knew sorghum by name only and had to check the details from wikipedia. It does not grow in Finland. I suppose that either our growing season is too short or our summers here in South differ a lot from each other. For example, this year summer has been hot and long, with no significant cooler periods. Last year was a total opposite. I remember wearing wool socks in the house year round because our floors remained so cool, and that I wore a sundress only once or twice -and even then, not exactly out of necessity. I'm not sure about what's the story with sugar maple because that is not grown here, either. Maybe it's because it needs a more continental climate than what we have.
As far as growing sweeteners goes, sugar beet can be grown, but I have never heard about anyone growing it non-commercially. In recent years, some folks have tried growing stevia in their backyard garden, and as far as I know, that works. The rest of us just have to content ourselves with the fact that our midnight sun does wonders in sweetening our many species of berries. For example, strawberries I have tasted while visiting in US (TX/California) have tasted sour and flavorless to me (no matter whether they have been served in a decent restaurant or I've felt curious while shopping at Whole Foods)...
Oh my that looks amazing. I've not had homemade sorghum sine I was a kid. Well a friend made some a couple years ago, it wasn't so good.
ReplyDeleteFascinating! I knew sorghum by name only and had to check the details from wikipedia. It does not grow in Finland. I suppose that either our growing season is too short or our summers here in South differ a lot from each other. For example, this year summer has been hot and long, with no significant cooler periods. Last year was a total opposite. I remember wearing wool socks in the house year round because our floors remained so cool, and that I wore a sundress only once or twice -and even then, not exactly out of necessity.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about what's the story with sugar maple because that is not grown here, either. Maybe it's because it needs a more continental climate than what we have.
As far as growing sweeteners goes, sugar beet can be grown, but I have never heard about anyone growing it non-commercially. In recent years, some folks have tried growing stevia in their backyard garden, and as far as I know, that works. The rest of us just have to content ourselves with the fact that our midnight sun does wonders in sweetening our many species of berries. For example, strawberries I have tasted while visiting in US (TX/California) have tasted sour and flavorless to me (no matter whether they have been served in a decent restaurant or I've felt curious while shopping at Whole Foods)...