Mr. Herbert Parr grew this stand of ribbon cane in his garden in the Blodgett community in 2007. Fields of ribbon cane and small family syrup mills were once common in Titus County, but as the popularity of ribbon cane syrup as a sweetener declined, so did cane production. Ribbon cane stalks are about 1 to 1-1/2" in diameter. The cane shown above was about 7 to 8 feet tall.
Ribbon cane, dark maroon in color, has a distinctive appearance because of the banding or "ribbons" on its stalk.
From the 1930s through 1960s, ribbon cane syrup was a popular breakfast item, and ribbon cane stalks were considered a snack item. Although ribbon cane syrup, and consequently the growing of cane, diminished in popularity in the latter 1950s through the 1960s until it is no longer considered a commercial crop, making ribbon cane syrup from locally grown sugar cane was once a common Northeast Texas agri-business. T. J. Blackburn Syrup Works of Jefferson, probably the best-known syrup mill in this area, has been in operation since 1927.
Ribbon cane is a subtropical cane that originated in the Southeast Asian tropics, and was an early crop that the Spanish brought to the Americas. Ribbon cane has a dark maroon color and a distinctive appearance because of the banding or "ribbons" on its stalk. Ribbon cane grows between 6 and 12 feet tall, with a stalk diameter of 1 to 2 inches near the ground. It was once widely grown in the southern United States, as far north as coastal North Carolina. Most United States ribbon cane was produced in Florida and Louisiana, and to a lesser extent in Hawaii and Texas.
Ribbon cane is planted from cuttings, which must contain at least one bud, rather than seeds. Its cultivation requires a tropical or subtropical climate with 24" of minimum annual rainfall. Cane grows best in light, sandy soil. Its growing season is several months, so farmers planted their cane in early spring and cut it just before the first killing frost. However, they had to be careful not to let the cane freeze before processing. Titus County's sandy soil, hot summers, and 32" average annual rainfall provide a good climate to grow cane.
Once planted, a stand of cane can be harvested several times. After each harvest, the cane sends up new stalks, called ratoons. Each successive harvest usually gives a smaller yield until eventually the declining yields require replanting. Depending on agricultural practices used, two to ten harvests are possible between plantings.
Small syrup mills were simple affairs consisting of three steel rollers mounted vertically in a frame. A shaft extending up from the rollers was attached to a long horizontal wooden pole. A horse or mule harnessed to the pole and simply walked in a circle to turn the rollers. A few raw cane stalks at a time were fed between the rollers, which mashed out the juice. The juice ran from the mill into collecting containers.
The raw cane juice was then carried to the cooking pans, which were long metal pans that sat on a brick or rock base. A fire was built under the base to heat the pans. Many small syrup mills were wood fired, but gas burners could be used if gas was available. The inside of the pan was baffled so that they raw juice could be moved from one compartment to the other as it cooked.
A "syrup master" oversaw the making of ribbon cane syrup from start to finish, assisted by several other cooks. The raw juice was boiled two to three hours at about 210 degrees Fahrenheit in large troughs to remove much of its moisture and concentrate its sugar content. The cook would use a wooden spatula to occasionally move the boiling cane juice. In addition to stirring to prevent burning, the juice must be skimmed and clarified throughout the procedure. Impurities rise to form a thick, dreggy foam on top of the juice during the first minutes of cooking. When the juice began to bubble through the foam, the cook reduced the heat and removed the dregs from the raw juice as it cooked using a skimmer made of a fine wire sieve attached to a long handle. When the dregs were skimmed, the heat was again increased. Dregs were skimmed as they accumulated after the initial skimming until cooking was finished. Seven to ten gallons of raw juice made one gallon of syrup after boiling. The new syrup was then drawn off and placed in large cooling containers before being packaged into gallon jugs or buckets for sale.
Ribbon cane syrup is sweeter and has a milder flavor than molasses. It was not only used directly as a sweetener on pancakes or biscuits, but was also often used as a cooking sweetener, in candies, and to make other products before inexpensive sweeteners came on the market. After other inexpensive sweeteners were introduced, the custom of making ribbon cane syrup practically ceased in East Texas during the 1960s. We do not know of any small syrup mills left in Titus County as of 2007.
Individual ribbon cane stalks were sold in grocery stores, where people bought them to cut into small sticks to chew. Even syrup making by-products were used. The mashed pulp was used as winter cattle feed, and waste skimmings were often fed hogs to help fatten them quickly and make their coats sleeker with shinier.
Ribbon cane is harvested by running a thin stick or knife down each side of the stalk to remove the dried leaves. Next, the leaves are removed from the top of the stalk. Finally, the stalk is cut off near the ground.
One or more men in almost every small community had a small syrup mill where they squeezed the juice from their own cane and sometimes that of their neighbors to make syrup. Making cane syrup was often a community affair where everyone pitched in to process their and their neighbor's cane into syrup and socialized in the process.
Ray Talley (left) and Alvie Rushing make syrup at a mill that was located on the Hess Ranch in the Old Union community in the 1950s.
