Sweet As Molasses: An Age-old Art Is Everyday Business for The Christians (September 17/18, 2011; October 2011)
Raising a long, metal ladle from the soupy foam to
carefully watch how easily the liquid rolled back into the tray, Mary said,
"It has to look like a hair. If it don't break, it's done."
There were a few more minutes to wait while the
rising steam fogged up her glasses.
"It looks like muddy water to start with,"
Jim added, staring at the mixture through a billowing wall of vapor. His
gaze showed years of attention spent perfecting the consistency of this
favorite sweet that he and his wife have made together for more than 40 years.
With Jim at age 77 and Mary at 78, the couple has
been married 58 years, and they've developed a knack for making homemade goods
along the way. Everything from fresh molasses to homemade apple butter,
pear butter, jellies, and jams fill a specially constructed barn near their
house.
"We've made 400 and some pints of apple butter
this year," Mary said, still stirring.
The Christians make molasses from sugar cane grown in
a nearby field, the place where Mary said the real hard work comes in. Up
before dawn, she and her husband work to harvest the tall cane stalks before
taking them to a grinder located a few yards uphill from the shed where they
boil down the juice to make molasses. Jim said they have to extract 100
gallons of juice from the cane before they can even begin to boil the rest.
"This will make us about 10 gallons of molasses,
but to get them right it's got to be pure and clean," Mary commented.
Using 12 natural gas burners instead of the hot coals
that were used in bygone days, he said the process of waiting for the molasses
to cook up just right takes five or six hours.
As the mixture started to boil more furiously, like a
geyser ready to explode through the murky water, Jim said it was almost time to
turn off the burners.
"That's what they call tater hillin,' he said
observing the boiling tray. "That rolling means it's about
done."
Satisfied with her day of patient stirring while also
keeping a keen eye on Jim's work, Mary said, "I think it's a pretty
color."
"It looks like it's going to be good," she
added. "When it cools it'll thicken up some, but I don't want it so
thick I have to pull it out of the jar. And I don't want it so thin you
have to pour it out either."
Jim spooned just enough molasses from the ladle for a taste, kneading it
carefully between his fingers to see if the consistency was hair-like.
"It's done," he said pulling at the sugar with his thumb and
forefinger.
Once the burners were off and the liquid had started
to cool, Jim and Mary worked quickly to get the scalding hot molasses into
buckets.
"We can't put it in jars until the next
day," Mary said. "We have to let it cool and set up some
first."
As he pulled one end of the long tray up by a chain
and pulley, Jim carefully sent all the molasses rolling to the other side where
a spigot was located.
Mary waited at the other end with a bucket covered in
cheesecloth, placed beneath the spout, and began to fill it carefully.
While she waited, Mary and Jim both took scrapers and made sure every trickle
of molasses was put to good use. Once several buckets were full, there
was even time for a taste or two.
"Old folks used to sop a piece of cane in the
molasses when it was done cooking and eat it that way," Jim said.
"It was good. Some people would rather have it like that."
Thinking back on the number of seasons they've worked
together making homemade goods for themselves and their neighbors, Jim said,
"We do this because we have so many customers that depend on us year after
year. It doesn't make us a lot of money, but there aren't a lot of people
who do it anymore. Most of the old folks are gone."
Mary added simply, "It's something you don't
forget," as she and Jim finished cleaning up their work to begin another
day in the fields, cutting more cane.