Sugar Cane: You CAN Grow It Outside the Tropics (And Make Amazing Syrup!)

Did you know that you can grow sugar cane well outside the tropics? Or that it will produce a harvest on dry ground?

I didn't until a few years back. Since then, I've learned a lot about sugar cane - and come to love the rich flavor of organic homemade cane syrup.
I've always wanted to make my own maple syrup... but it's really hard to do when you don't have maple trees lying around.

If you're in the south, you know what I mean. There are maples here and there, but there's nothing like the great stands of magnificent sugar maples that are found further north.
Here, if you want syrup, you basically need to grow sorghum or sugar cane. I prefer the latter, since the yields are high and the plant is perennial.

 

How To Plant and Grow Sugar Cane

This is easy as pie. In the fall when roadside stands and farmer's markets are selling sugar cane, grab a few good-looking stems and bring them home. Each joint on the canes is capable of rooting and growing new shoots. I cut canes up into sections that contain 3 or 4 joints, just to give my plants a little redundancy in case of sprout failure or hungry vermin.

Prepare a planting bed, then dig 4-6" deep trenches along it a foot or two apart. Lay your cane segments on their sides and cover them up with soil. In the spring, shoots will appear. Sometimes it takes a while, so be patient! They'll come up. I plant mine from November to January and they tend to come up in March and April.
Sugar cane is a grass so it likes nitrogen. I've fed mine with chicken manure and that's made them quite happy. Anything you'd use to feed your lawn will also work on cane. Give them lots of water and they'll also thank you.

Sugar cane also enjoys plenty of sun (it's a remarkably efficient photosynthesizer), so make sure you're not trying to grow the poor things in the shade.




Harvesting Sugar Caneharvesting sugar cane By late fall, if all has gone well, your bed of cane will be tall and thick, like a stand of bamboo. At this point, you'll want to grab a cigar, a Panama hat and a machete. (Only the machete is strictly necessary, but the other accessories set the mood for a proper harvest.) I like to harvest close to my first frost date. Do NOT let them get hit by frost. If you're not sure what weather is coming, harvest a little early so you don't risk your shot at sugaring. Cut your canes as close to the ground as possible, just don't hack into the dirt too much. The roots beneath are important: they're going to give you next year's harvest. I throw the cut canes into a pile, then when I've cut everything down, I start stripping off the leaves and throwing them over the stumps still in my bed. A bit of extra mulch or straw is a good idea, too - you want to keep the roots safe from the

ravages of cold weather.


cane syrupMaking Your Own Cane

Syrup This is the fun part, and it fills your house with a wonderful sweet corn aroma. Professionals crush the juice out of sugar cane with special presses - but I have my own drop-dead simple method I share in detail here (with lots of photos). Once you get your juice, it's a simple matter of boiling it down to the right consistency. Cook... cook... cook... and eventually, you'll be rewarded with a syrup that I believe rivals even the venerable elixir of maples. Sugar cane is easy to grow, easy to harvest and easy to process into something that's delicious and very gift-worthy for the holidays. Try a bed
this year - you'll be glad you did.






How to make cane syrup at home… without a sugar cane press








As you regular readers know, I’ve been growing sugar cane for a few years now. The kids love it, but I’ve wanted to do more with our crop than just hack chunks off for chewing. Last fall when I planted a big bed of sugar cane, I knew that at some point I’d have to figure out how to process it into something useful. Since distilling is apparently illegal, rum was out… but homemade cane syrup sounded like a winner. Plus, Rachel wanted it, so it had to be made.








Step 1: Harvest Some Canes

We live in a climate with freezes in winter that will knock sugar cane down to the ground, so this is the time of year we cut canes. It’s got to happen before frost or the crop will be ruined. Cane harvesting is fun because you get to use a machete. Anything is better with a machete. I cut the canes close to the ground, then strip off the leaves and throw them over the “stumps” I leave behind. Because sugar cane is a cold-sensitive perennial, covering up the roots will keep the plant safe until next spring when a whole new batch of homegrown sugar will rise from the ground as soon as the soil warms up enough.





Step 2: Wash Those Canes

Sugarcane tends to have mildew on its stems, along with dust, dirt and the occasional bug. I don’t want these in my syrup, so I scrub the canes after removing the leaves. I like to do this over one of my garden beds and rinse with the hose as I go. I don’t use soap or anything, just water and elbow grease. The canes are truly beautiful when they’re wet – they look like lovely varnished bamboo. Contemplating their attractiveness helps alleviate the mind-crushing boredom of washing a stack of them.

 

 

Step 3: Start Chopping ’em Up Here’s the big problem with sugar cane: it’s full of fibers. You can’t just put chunks in your juicer. I tried… and I don’t think my Champion juicer will ever be the same. After multiple jam-ups and some smoking and shaking which only yielded about a half-cup of syrup, I realized it was pointless. Normally, sugar cane is processed with powerful presses that crush it flat and let the sugary juice run out. I don’t have anything like this at home and couldn’t figure out a good way to jury-rig something. Real presses are really expensive – and the Thai ones they often sell on e-bay are made for flattening squid, not crushing something as tough as sugar cane. Don’t waste your money! What we decided to do was simply chop the sugar cane into chunks, then quarter those segments. A good heavy meat cleaver works well for this.


Step 4: Boil the Chunks Of Cane

After chopping, we put the pieces into a large stockpot, covered them with water, then started boiling the sugar out of them. This takes some time and you have to make sure they stay covered with water, so top the pot off occasionally. As the cane cooks, it will lose its lustrous color and start to turn pale brown. Once the flavor of the water is the same as that of a chunk of the boiled sugar cane, you’re ready to move on to the next step. This takes an hour or two – I let my tastebuds be my guide.









Step 5: Strain Out the Cane Fragments

I pour the hot sugary juice through a stainless steel strainer, which brings up a good point. Do this whole process with stainless steel implements, if you can at all help it. Aluminum cookware leeches aluminum into your food, imparting off flavors while slowly poisoning you in the process. You don’t want aluminum fortified cane syrup. Just trust me on this one. That said – once you’ve poured off the juice into a second pot, it’s time to get really cooking.


Step 6: Boil It Down

This step (and the previous one) makes your house smell amazing. It’s not the molasses smell you would expect, though; it’s more of a delicious sweet corn aroma. You’re going to boil… boil… boil this juice until the liquid has reduced in the pot to a dangerously low level. Just keep a half an eye on it and find something nearby to do, like the dishes… or beer pong. If your juice hasn’t thickened when the pot has boiled down to an inch or so in the bottom (mine is never thick enough at that point), then pour your big pot’s contents into a smaller pot and proceed to the final step.




Step 7: Finish and Jar the Syrup

You’re really close to the end now. It’s the final stretch! At this point, you need to be careful not to let the syrup burn, turn into caramel or boil over. Cook it with constant supervision and be ready to pull it off the burner at a moment’s notice. The bubbles start to get very thick and glassy as it nears syrup consistency. My first batch was very, very thick so I learned to back off a little on the final boil down. Dip a spoon regularly into the syrup and see how thick it is when it cools. Putting a few spoons aside in the freezer for this stage is a good idea. Once you’ve got the right thickness, pour your syrup off into a mason jar and voila! Cane syrup! Congratulations! You’ve made your own home-grown, organic, vegan, free trade, sustainably harvested, locavore-approved, non-GMO, gluten-free, amazingly delicious sugar cane syrup!

Sure, it’s a lot easier to juice the cane first, rather than doing the chop n’ boil… but if you’re just a hobbyist like me who wants a few jars of syrup to give away at Christmas, this beats having to buy a specialized extractor or find a local cane mill. I bet it would also work for sorghum… try it and see. As a final note: this stuff tastes absolutely amazing… you’re gonna try it and love it. Happy syruping!