Country Christmas Parade

I received a call the other day wanting to know what had happened to the blog posts.  My answer was that we lead a pretty uneventful life while at home.  Our home is surrounded by trees, so there are no dramatic sunsets to photograph.  I’ve posted all about my neighbors farm, both old and new.  I haven’t been involved in any projects to speak of, so there just hasn’t been anything to blog about.  I can’t imagine anyone would be interested in our day to day life here at home.
All the towns around where we live had their Christmas parades the first of the month.  Nothing much exciting about them as they have evolved into loud bands playing everything but Christmas music, and people, old and young, fighting over candy thrown from the floats.  Today was a little different.



A rural community just a few miles from us has a parade each year.  It’s out in the country.  Organized by a local church, it has become a fun event.  Nothing but fields and pastures along the route.



Little ones awaiting the arrival of Santa Clause.



Soon it’s under way with bikes and trikes.

 

Old rusty jeeps and new ORV’s.

 

Classic cars and new wheels.

 

The Exchange Club was passing out American flags, as usual.

Santa finally arrives in his red chariot.



Followed by a wagon train full of elves, accompanied by lots of cowboys and cowgirls.



 

Ride finished, a family watches the remaining parade.



The eyes of a child at Christmas.



Looking at the photo above, I can’t help but be drawn to tears.  Thinking about those children that lost their lives yesterday morning, and what their parents must be going through at the present time.  The Christmas season will never be joyful for them, ever again.  Please remember them in your prayers for days to come………jc

Syrup Cooking

 

A few weeks ago Judy had a post about an old  Southern tradition. It was part of a living history exhibition on the NWR where she is presently volunteering.  Little did I know when  reading her post that the tradition was alive and well just a little over ten miles from my home.

A fifth generation syrup maker still grows a little sugar cane for his own personal consumption and sale, along with making syrup for the few other folks in the area that still grow it.  His operation is a little larger than the one Judy spoke of, but the procedure is much the same.  The mule or horse is missing, being replaced with an old Farmall tractor.

 

The mill for crushing the cane is larger, but the results are the same.  The cane is fed between two large rollers to extract the juice.

 

Manufactured in Columbus, Georgia nearly a hundred years ago, it still performed well.

The juice runs from the mill through a couple of different screens into a large metal stock tank.

From there, it gravity feeds down to the cooker.  A U shaped trough approximately thirty feet long and two feet wide.

The juice is skimmed to remove as much foam as possible because it makes the syrup dark.

As the juice makes its way along the trough it is progressively heated until it begins to steam.  By the time it reaches the other end of the trough it is at a roiling boil.

It’s at this point where the syrup makers art becomes apparent.  If you don’t cook it long enough it’s too thin and watery; too long it won’t pour and might scorch.  Like a fine winemaker, he constantly stirs, tastes, and looks for certain things.

At the proper moment the valve is opened and what looks like liquid gold pours into a bucket.

From there it is dumped through another screen into the the bottling tub.

Each persons cane is cooked and bottled separately.  That’s due to the different varieties of cane, as well as the variations within each crop.  Just like grapes, different soils and moisture levels produce different sugar levels, which affects the final product.  Though some mixing takes place at the beginning and end of each batch, as the cooker can’t run dry, what you bring in the way of sugar cane is what you take home in syrup.

 

The syrup maker himself takes a portion of each batch as payment for his mill and labor.  By Christmas he has sold all he made for himself, as well as his take for cooking for others.

 

It was a beautiful Saturday morning on the first day of December.  Just to be out in the country smelling that hot syrup cooking, visiting with folks young and old, and watching what’s soon to be a lost art, was awesome. 

 

 

 

Oh, Yeah!  I brought some home.  Now to talk Wanda into a pan of hot biscuits….jc

Happy Thanksgiving

Wanda and I would like to wish all of you a very special Thanksgiving.

The Thanksgiving holiday period has always been my favorite time of the year.  Fall is usually still hanging around with moderate temperatures and clear blue skies.  The trees haven’t lost all their color and it is a great time of year to be outside in the Deep South.

The holiday also brings back great memories of times gone bye.  When I was young, our family lived on what was the old home place.  Thanksgiving brought family back home from those faraway places like Baton Rouge or New Orleans.  It was something I looked forward to all year.  The men and boys would go hunting for squirrel, rabbits, and quail.   There were no deer in our area.   A dozen folks and a pack of yard dogs.  Lots of hunting with little killing.  We would spend Thanksgiving morning in the woods, returning home just in time to clean up and have dinner.

All the time we were in the woods, the ladies were preparing the Thanksgiving meal.  A turkey from the yard, with a dishpan of dressing; along with chicken and dumplings.  Ham and potato salad.  Greens, butterbeans, peas, sweet potato’s, macaroni and cheese, roast in gravy, corn casserole, the list could go on. Cornbread and biscuits.  Cakes, pies, and fruit ambrosia.  Most everyone sitting around the yard afterward, talking about the years events while the younger ones played a game of football.
 
Though all the older ones are now gone, we still get together each Thanksgiving .  My brother lives there now; and tomorrow the menu will be about the same.  There will be four generations present, giving thanks for the blessings we have received this year.  Hopefully the younger ones will be making memories even better than mine.

Happy Thanksgiving…….jc