10 New Reasons to Love Ol Sorghum

How Sorghums Goodness Can Help Us And Our Communities Be Healthy, Wealthy and Happy

A Survey
How many plan to grow sorghum (aka sorghum molasses) this year? How many have grown or cooked sorghum in the past? How many have a jar of good sorghum in your house? How many have tasted sorghum this month? Week? Today?

Gratitude to the ones who brought the seeds,

and to the Ones Who Came Before

including my family, and maybe yours,

Dedicated to the ones still to come, who bring the flowering.

What is it?
Juice pressed from sorghum cane stalks, cooked un til it becomes an amber syrup

Can something so delicious also be important and useful?

YES!
certainly

oh yeah absolutely
can A. Davis block shots?

oui

affirmative

hide and watch us

si
definitely

you bet
yep
sure

10: It tastes good. Eating more sorghum leads to pleasure.

9: Better health!
In Stop the Clock! CookingDefy Aging, Cheryl Forberg cites USDA findings that sorghum syrup ranks fifth among foods that neutralize free radicals in our bodies.

8: Farm income! Sorghum sales support our small farms and farm families.

Like the Casey County families involved in making pure Oberholtzer sorghum

Like the Congletons in Woodford County, Who grow the cane for Country Rock sorghum

Like the Townsends of Townsend Sorghum Mill In Jeffersonville (Montgomery County)

When growers sell sorghum for thousands per acre-thats good all around..

Time-out for Sorghum Math

Present retail prices per pint in Kentucky (online) range from $5 - $8 (with one seller charging $12/half pint). At 16 pints/gallon, retail prices reach can reach >$100/gallon Average yields per acre in Kentucky? 175 gallons (and up to 300 gallons) Average production costs per acre: $816 - $967 If producers get $25/gallon for syrup, net returns could exceed $3,000/acre on average, and could be higher. Yields per acre vary by year, soil, grower, cook, seed variety, and more.
Source: Sweet Sorghum for Syrup, UK College of Ag and Cooperative Extension, 2009

Dollars from sorghum sales circulate in communities like Liberty and West Liberty, Versailles And Princeton. Every $1 spent locally generates an additional 68 cents in local economic activity.

7. Community wealth

The Festival helps, too.

Eating more sorghum leads to Buying more sorghum, which leads to growers Growing more sorghum, which leads to More farm income, which leads to Community wealth.
And thats good for all of us.

Sorghum, sweet and dear, leads to Greater Commonwealth.

Greater Commonwealth means we can increase our investments

schools parks and recreation health and wellness sidewalks, streets, roads colleges, universities, and technical schools cultivating, preserving, teaching, and expanding history and heritage, beautiful and useful handmade goods, and our ability to be free, self-sufficient, and care for our own community festivals, celebrations, commemorations home towns and counties that make us proud

6. Self Sufficiency
Sorghum is a freedom food for Kentuckians, both eaters and growers. Sorghum is one of the few farm-produced commodities that does not leave the farmer a hapless victim of the marketplace. As long as supply continues to lag well behind demand, farmers can continue to charge profitable prices on both retail and wholesale levels.
Source: Sweet Sorghum Production and Processing, by George Kuepper for the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Time to pour it on!

5, 4, 3, 2, 1
5. Sorghum cane feeds lightly on soil and grows well in poor soils. 4. Even conventional production requires minimal pesticides and fungicides. 3. Sorghum cane is drought resistant. 2. No GMO seeds; no commodity-scale competitors for small producers. 1. Sorghum molasses is pure Kentucky culture and heritage. It is ours. Thank goodness!

Our familys traditional cookie!

What can we each do? Top or sweeten with sorghum: oatmeal, tea, hot lemonade, coffee, biscuits, cornbread, spoonbread, pancakes, bagels, waffles, French toast Cook with sorghum: baked beans, roast vegetables, baked fruit, pies, cakes, cookies, sauces, glazes, salad dressings, ice cream, popcorn balls Ask for sorghum at restaurants, bakeries, and caf Give cooks and food-lovers sorghum as gifts Sponsor school contests or clubs that encourage sorghum cultivation and production Ask for sorghum at your farmers markets, and ask for demonstrations and tastings Encourage Cooperative Extension to support sorghum cane cultivation and sorghum production and marketing Befriend a good sorghum-maker and introduce him/her to everyone you know

Resources: www.sweetsweetsorghum.com

Questions? Comments?

My love song to sorghum. With recipes.

Photo credits: Mick Jeffries Geoff Maddock Rona Roberts Copyright Savoring Kentucky 2013