As cool air slowly creeps in and the leaves begin to change, it can only mean one thing—it’s sorghum making time in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Sorghum-making demonstrations at Cades Cove Visitor Center and funded by Great Smoky Mountains Association take you back in time to the mountain farms that once populated the Smokies and their annual fall sorghum cane harvest.
Sorghum syrup is a distinct part of the Appalachian culture. Mountain inhabitants had a notoriously big sweet tooth, and for many, sorghum was the only sweetener available, according to Rose Houk in Food & Recipes of the Smokies.
Food & Recipes of the Smokies not only includes sweet sorghum recipes, it also dives into the history and importance of the crop. In the past, most mountain farmers had a cane patch. Seeds were planted in spring, and some farmers believed that sorghum cane planted in dark ground produced dark sorghum molasses, while that planted in light ground yielded light syrup. When the seed heads turned red and hard, it was time to harvest the cane. This needed to be done before the first frost, usually by late September or early October, Houk wrote.
The plant’s leaves and seed heads were then stripped and the cane was cut. It was taken without delay to a sorghum mill. Because molasses-making was something of a specialty, usually only a few people in any area had a mill, people with names like “Sugar John,” Houk wrote.
To ensure the demonstrations are as realistic and historically accurate as possible, the association partners with experienced sorghum makers. Sherry and Mark Guenther, owners of Muddy Pond Sorghum in Monterey, Tennessee, have been making their trek to the Smokies each fall for 19 years. Their mules and old-timey tools draw crowds of onlookers who sometimes stand for hours, marveling at the time and energy it took in years past to produce a family’s supply of sweetener.
“We bring our two mules and all equipment and supplies with us to set up our demonstration outside the Cades Cove Visitor Center,” Sherry said. “My husband feeds the sorghum cane into the more-than-100-years-old cane mill, while one of the mules is tied to the pole and walks around the mill. This squeezes the juice out of the sorghum cane.”
Mark then boils the freshly squeezed juice down on a wood-fired furnace until it becomes a thick, sweet sorghum syrup—the same syrup featured in Aunt Becky’s famous barbecue sauce, available at the visitor center.
“GSMA sells our sorghum and barbecue sauce at a table near the live demonstration,” said Sherry. “I give visitors samples to taste and talk to them about this rich mountain tradition that many people—including people who lived in the Cove during the Great Depression—still practice today.”
Sorghum isn’t just a job for Sherry and Mark—it’s a passion. “We do these demonstrations to keep a dying art form alive,” Sherry said. “We enjoy teaching young people and children about a part of their history and helping older people relive a part of their childhood. Many of them remember their grandparents making sorghum syrup this way.”
The Guenther family’s sorghum is 100 percent pure with no additives and is made from Muddy Pond’s own sugarcane planted each year. muddypondsorghum.com
Sorghum-making demonstrations at Cades Cove Visitor Center are free and open to the public. Upcoming dates are: November 8, 9, 10, & 11; November 15, 16, & 17; November 22, 23, & 24; November 29 & 30; December 1.