Youth ‘Seed to Syrup’ sorghum project to host community night, tasting Thursday

This Thursday evening, a group of local Ozark County kids (and any community members who would like to join them) will enjoy the sweet success of their hard work over the last two and a half months when piles of fluffy pancakes are served up with their own homegrown and homemade sweet sorghum syrup, the cumulated efforts of a local “seed to syrup” agricultural project.

The sorghum syrup tasting and pancake supper will be held at 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 12, at Flotsam Farm’s community building off Highway 181, north of Gainesville near Hodgson Mill. The dinner will be potluck style with attendees asked to bring a breakfast-for-dinner item to share with the group. The tasting is being held in conjunction with a presentation in which the young program participants will share what they learned during the project and talk about future plans. Everyone in the community is invited. 

The seed to syrup project, headed up by organizer and Sycamore resident Amelia LaMair, was made possible by a $5,163 SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education) grant, provided through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. 

“Sorghum syrup production was once a strong tradition in the Ozarks, but has largely faded. A group of older folks who produced sorghum cooperatively for six years with the Ozarks Neighborly Exchange group offered the use of their sorghum-making equipment,” LaMair explained. “It’s given us a special opportunity to pass the tradition on to young people and their families. Perhaps localized syrup making has fallen out of favor because it is easier and cheaper to simply buy sugar at the store, but this does not take into account the many hidden costs of sugar production. We would like to use sorghum-making as a way to teach young people the importance and benefits of producing food in a way that is ecologically sound, economically viable and socially responsible. Producing high quality food is not easy -- and it doesn’t necessarily make economic sense when government subsidies make certain foods artificially cheap -- but it is very rewarding.”

The project has been chugging along over the last five months at Flotsam Farm, an 8-acre farm that produces staple crops of sweet potatoes, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, garlic and blackberries each year, as well as a variety of other fruits and vegetables and maintains a flock of laying hens and a dairy goat herd. The farm is owned by LaMair and Eric Tumminia and has been the setting for a number of community events and activities over the last several years, aimed at bringing local Ozark Counians together.

LaMair told the Times that there have been 29 young people, age 2 to 18, involved with the sorghum project this year, and the majority of the participants attended every class, workday and meeting that was scheduled as part of the effort. Many of the participants are members of Ozarks Wildskool, a group that formed during the pandemic as a way for kids to socialize through nature-based education. Many of the children are also homeschooled and have utilized the sorghum project in their studies at home.

“We’ve used science, art and hands-on experience to learn about sustainable agriculture and connect with our food and our local landscape,” LaMair said. 

The program began in April with an introduction to the project and planning session. The group planted an eighth-acre of Sugardrip sorghum in mid-May. They thinned and weeded the patch during June, and then met in July to scout for pests and participate in a fun sorghum-related pottery session. In early August, the group again scouted for pests among the sorghum patch and took Brix-readings, which analyzed the sugar content of the plants to determine its maturity level. They harvested the sorghum cane when it was ready, on Aug. 18, stripping the plants of their leaves and de-heading each one by cutting the seed heads off. The cane was harvested with hand tools. 

All the hard work of the previous four months came to fruition during a one-day “Syrup Camp,” held Aug. 28. The camp consisted of pressing in the morning and then cooking in the afternoon.

To press the plants of their juice, the participants fed the sorghum cane into a historic 1800s-era three-roller mill with the large end of the cane first. As the cane was fed into the mill, horses took turns leading the vertical rollers, powering the press. As a result, green juice poured from the spout of the press and was fed through a filter and into a barrel. 

The remnants of the plant or spent cane, called bagasse, emerged from the opposite side, where it was prepped to run through the mill a second time. The begasse was saved and will be utilized for livestock feed and used in the garden as organic matter. 

“The seed heads can be used for flour, boiled like rice, made into hominy or popped,” LaMair said. “We will be feeding most of them to our chickens and goats this year. We did not save seed to plant next year due to cross-pollination with Johnson grass.”

After working hard all morning to press the green sorghum juice from the cane, the participants were anxious to cook the liquid down into the sweet syrup.

“We scooped the juice out of the barrel, through another filter, and into our cooking pots. Sorghum is often cooked in long, shallow evaporator pans set over a fire, but this year we ‘batch cooked’ in pots using propane.”

The process involves bringing the green juice to a boil and cooking the moisture out until the liquid reaches the perfect consistency. 

“We had to constantly stir the pots to prevent scorching, and we had to skim the green scum off that rose to the top. Eventually the syrup turned from green to golden brown. We are shooting for 230 degrees (Fahrenheit) with a hydrometer reading of 35.” 

When the liquid dripped off a spoon in sheets, they knew it was ready. They ladeled the sweet brown syrup into jars, ready for a feast. In all, the project participants came away with 12 gallons of sorghum syrup, a higher yield than they expected. 

LaMair says one of the central concepts of the project has been teaching children about food sovereignty. She describes it as, “the system in which the people who produce, distribute and consume food also control the mechanisms and policies of food production and distribution.

“Currently corporations and market institutions control the global food system, but we believe in local food economies, sustainable food availability and culturally appropriate foods and practices.”

LaMair says that this first season has allowed the organizers and participants to learn and teach as they’ve laid the groundwork for a successful cooperative venture that they plan to repeat for years to come. 

“The young people involved have felt a real ownership of the project and will be able to teach others. In future seasons we plan to scale the project up to produce extra syrup for sale,” she said. 

For more information about Flotsam Farm and its continued efforts, call LaMair at 417-261-1104, email Amelia.lamair@gmail.com or follow the “Flotsam Farm” Facebook page. The farm is located at 13962 State Highway 181 in Sycamore (Tecumseh area) near Hodgson Mill.