The past two days have found the farmees at Homestead Heritage, a community of one hundred or so families on over five hundred acres of land about five miles from the Farm.
This week is Homestead's annual sorghum harvest, and Monday they will celebrate with a festival open to the public. The Farm volunteers and interns had a chance to participate in different facets of the harvest from cutting to cooking.
Normally many farmees like to wear sandals and shorts, as noticed by our fearless leader D. Cole, but for this day we donned long sleeved shirts, pants, boots, gloves, and hats. Samson, in a mustard yellow western shirt and crumpled cowboy hat looked like a 1920s cowboy straight out of a tintype. Kris Hiew even came by to participate in the fun.
Sorghum is very much like sugar cane, and the processes of harvesting, pressing, and cooking are similar. Tuesday we loaded onto two large wagons pulled by Belgium draft horses and mules. Down in the sorghum fields, Kurt taught us how to strip and cut the canes. We did not actually cut the stalks because they had gotten a bit ahead of themselves the day before. However, we picked up piles of cane by the arm full. These stalks were seven to ten feet tall, monsters. Chewing on an end of the cane produced a sweet snack while working.
Hauling the sorghum from field to drop off, we each took turns driving the team of horses, or mules, navigating tight squeezes, turns, and the occasional passerby.
Wednesday the Homesteaders started pressing by 4:30 am, we Farmers (the non-professional type), slept until chore time, worked a little around the grounds, then headed to the sorghum at 10.
The press is beautiful. Fire Engine Red. Operated by a single work animal walking in circles to turn the cogs. The boys fed cane into the mill, cleaned the mill, hauled the spent canes, and scooped the poop. The girls (minus Jocelyne who could not tear herself away from the magnificent animals) worked with the Homestead women cleaning the copper cooking vat.
From the outside, the Homestead men and women, and even children, look similar to each other in dress and demeanor. It took a while to find a conversation between us Farm women and them Homestead women; we look so different from the outside. Once someone mentioned milking though, the conversation kept steady from dairy goats, dairy cows, small scale livestock, livestock diseases, sewing, cheese making, yogurt making tips, hair braiding ideas, and family background. These women and teenage girls know more about this life than I do, but what little knowledge about a simple or self-sufficient life that we knew, the ice was broken never to be resealed. I don't know how the Farm men fared with the Homestead men, but my respect and like for these families has more than doubled from their hospitality to complete outsiders.
Quote heard more than once..... "I even like sorghum better than molasses." Challenge to you to find and try some. I've heard it is tasty on anything; maybe a biscuit, or toast, or even oatmeal.
Cheers and "gits!"
Melyssa
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