Syrup...sorghum syrup that is!

This year I was excited to try my hand at growing sorghum. It's a hardy plant, grows similar to corn and is pretty drought resistant which I thought might be a plus through the summer heat of Arkansas.

Since I am gluten intolerant I can grind the sorghum grains into gluten-free flour,  harvest the stalks to boil down for syrup and the rest feeds the compost pile.  It's a win-win in my book!  And...they were fun to watch from the living room windows tall and majestic in the background of our raised garden beds.  So, yesterday I harvested a few of the stalks to give this syrup making thing a try. 

 It's not hard work really but it does take some patience and some time.  First, you cut the stalks up into pieces removing the knuckles along the stalk.  Then I peeled off the outer hard layer of fiber and any leaves that were still on, then I hard-boiled these pieces for about an hour.  Next, I left them to cool just enough so I could handle them and cut off another layer of hard fiber exposing the sugar canes inside. These were returned to the syrup mixture to be hard-boiled again this took way over an hour this time - tasting every so often to monitor the sweetness.  I want a nice syrup but not too sweet and not too dark and molasses-like.  By the way that's what you get if you keep boiling the sugary syrup down...molasses.  So this syrup will not taste like maple syrup, but a lighter version of molasses.  

I'm thinking we should try it out soon on some homemade sorghum flour waffles!