In our earliest days of pioneer cooking and baking, the “big four” for forms of “sweet harvests,” which have provided sugar derivatives dating back to the days of the 13 colonies, are honey, maple syrup, molasses and sorghum.
Our white grain sugar, of course, comes from sugar cane fields.
This season, the nearest neighboring fields across the ditch bordering my parents’ house at the farm are filled with sturdy stalks of sorghum.
A Tribune column I wrote and published about this same time of year in August 2019 detailed an account from our farm friend neighbor Steve Scamerhorn, now 87, explaining how he now witnesses more “low-flying field airplanes” scattering seeds in fields to sow sorghum, which establishes roots to preserve precious topsoil for the next planting.
The sorghum fields planted around our family farm this year are courtesy of and cultivated by the Wappel family, our neighbors just down the road. They have 500 acres planted in sorghum for summer 2025.
In the surrounding areas of Starke County, it’s not uncommon to have fields of sorghum, which is a member of the grass family and can be raised as a grain. It can be used as a “field fodder plant for pasture” or harvested to create the sweet, thick syrup that is so similar to molasses.
Larry and Debbie Wappel’s son Eric explained to me that sorghum is best suited as a crop on “low productivity farmland,” and it is usually harvested in mid-October. Wappel Farms have their sorghum crops contracted with Wheatfield Grain Co. and, rather than extracting the sweet syrup from the stalks, the Wappel’s 500 acres of sorghum are being grown for the plume-like tassels, which include tiny red berries included in the mixed bags of birdseed.
Eric said most of today’s sorghum is grown in states like Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.
My dad Chester says he’s noticed these “tiny red dried berries” are among the first ingredients in bird seed blends that he’s found picky birds to “spit out on the ground.” Sorghum is also sometimes called “milo” or “millet,” and in its early stages of growth, looks similar to fields of corn without the kernel ears along the stalks.
I purchased a small 37-page staples recipe pamphlet in 1990 titled “Just Naturally Sweet,” written and published by Patricia B. Mitchell.
She gives a wonderful explanation of sorghum and how sorghum syrup and molasses can often be interchangeable as ingredients for baking needs.
“The process of making sorghum molasses is familiar to me, as a Virginian, because sorghum is grown here, and I’ve been to sorghum festivals to observe its production,” Mitchell writes inside the pages of her pamphlet.
“The end result is a jar of shining brown, tangy, sweetly yummy sorghum syrup. This starts in early spring when sorghum seeds are planted. After months of growing, but before the first frost, the tall stalks are cut and hauled to a ‘cane mill’ for processing. A lengthy growing season is required, so states very far north do not produce sorghum. Southern Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee are some of the leading producers. The long, flat leaves are stripped off the stalks, and the stalks are fed into the mill, a roller press which may be powered by horse, tractor or electric generator.”
According to Mitchell, six acres of land yield 60 tons of stripped cane. This cane then yields 360 gallons of juice, which is cooked down to 60 gallons of sorghum molasses. She said, “The left-over chaws of the squeezed cane are then often fed to cattle, sheep and goats.”
My own 2019 cookbook, “Back From the Farm: Family Recipes and Memories of a Lifetime” ($34.95 Pediment Press), includes a delicious recipe for baked loaf cake featuring sorghum.
One of my students from a course I taught in public speaking at Valparaiso University in 2015 shared her family’s connection to sorghum. Catherine Ament of Rolling Prairie, near LaPorte, was studying to be an elementary teacher. She is now married, and her students at Olive Elementary School know her as Mrs. Saylor.
Her grandmother’s recipe for Sorghum Creme Cake was a sweet success when she shared it with our class back in 2015 for her demonstration speech assignment. She said the recipe originated in the early 1900s when her grandmother was born.
Like me, Catherine has found that sorghum syrup is easiest to purchase in our area at an orchard or farmstand market.
It is also important to note that true “molasses” refers to a different sweet syrup, made with a process that is a byproduct of sugarcane or sugar beet sugar extraction.
Today’s featured recipe comes from author Mitchell’s treasured recipe pamphlet, which includes a note that either molasses or sorghum syrup can be used for these moist bread loaves.
Columnist Philip Potempa has published four cookbooks and is a radio host on WJOB 1230 AM. He can be reached at [email protected] or mail your questions: From the Farm, PO Box 68, San Pierre, Ind. 46374.
Everything Nice Quick Loaf Bread
Makes 2 loaves
More Top Picks Bar Stool
5 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup cane or sorghum molasses
1/2 cup honey
3 cups sour milk or buttermilk
2 tablespoons orange zest (peel), grated
Directions:
1. Combine the dry ingredients and, in a separate bowl, mix together the liquids.
2. Incorporate the liquid mixture into the dry one and stir to moisten.
3. Pour this batter into two 9×5-inch greased loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 50 minutes.