FOR SALE AT LOCAL FARMERS MARKETS
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From local reports
Up in Vermont, maple trees abound and maple syrup is king.
Here in Georgia, we have plenty of maple trees, but we make our own sweet syrup by extracting and concentrating the juice of another plant, the sugar cane. Caramel flavored, burnt gold in color, cane syrup is thick, sweet and inherently Southern.
November is prime harvest season for sugar cane, and we caught up with Mickey Morris of Mickey’s Farm in the middle of harvesting and syrup-making.
Morris and his wife Judy are just wrapping up their third year of cane syrup production. They’ve been planting about three acres of sugar cane each year and produce an average of 250 gallons of syrup per acre. They also produce sugar cane juice and sell a few hundred sugar cane stalks for those who like to peel the stalks and chew on the pulp.
Mickey's Farm is in Odum in southeast Georgia, near Jesup, about five hours from Atlanta. There's a retail operation on the farm, or customers can purchase their cane syrup online at www.mickeysfarminc.com. Morris says they've got the system down pretty well now and look forward to expanding their plantings and syrup-making operation.
It takes nine months to produce sugar cane ready to harvest. Morris says their sandy wet south Georgia soil is ideal for sugar cane production. Once harvested, the stalks go directly to the farm’s mill to be pressed. About 100 gallons of the fresh pressed juice is sold as is, with the remainder evaporated down to become pure cane syrup.
By the way, those stalks don’t go to waste. The crushed cane is chopped into 3-inch pieces that can be used as compost, mulch, cattle rations or fuel for heating equipment.
Morris says 500 stalks will produce 100 gallons of juice. Reduced, that 100 gallons turns into 10 gallons of syrup.
The Morrises enjoy their cane syrup the old fashioned way, on pancakes and stirred into baked beans or used as a baste for fish or barbecue. “My grandmother used to make a tea cake called ‘Syrup Cake,’ but we don’t do that much anymore,” said Morris.
Each year, the day after Thanksgiving finds the Morrises attending the Harris family cane grinding, hosted by Judy Morris’ brothers and sister. They get together to pull taffy and share a supper that features homemade biscuits with sugar cane syrup for dessert.
Adrian Villarreal’s Cane-Glazed Cod
Villarreal is executive chef at The Spence in Midtown Atlanta. Cod is his choice of fish for this recipe, but it will work with tuna, salmon or other fillets as well.
2 cups mirin
1 cup sake or white wine
3/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce, divided
3 tablespoons white miso paste
1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons cane syrup, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
6 (6-ounce) cod fillets
1/4 cup grape seed oil
1/4 cup unseasoned rice wine vinegar
In a medium bowl, combine mirin, sake, 1/2 cup soy sauce, miso, 3 tablespoons cane syrup and ginger. Mix well. Add cod fillets, cover and refrigerate 6 hours. When ready to cook, remove fillets from marinade, pat dry and cover lightly. Set aside. Discard marinade.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a large ovenproof skillet, combine remaining 1/4 cup cane syrup, grape seed oil, remaining 1/4 cup soy sauce and vinegar. Bring to a boil and cook until mixture reduces by half. Add fillets to skillet and put into oven. After 5 minutes, baste fish with cooking liquid. Baste twice more and bake until fish is cooked to 155 degrees, about 10 minutes total. Glaze should be shiny and thick and coat the fish. If fish is done before glaze is sufficiently reduced, remove fish from skillet and keep warm. Move skillet to cooktop and bring to a boil until reduced. If the glaze has reduces too much, add a tablespoon of water to the skillet and stir well to combine. Serves: 6
Per serving: 479 calories (percent of calories from fat, 35), 33 grams protein, 26 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 14 grams fat (1 gram saturated), 74 milligrams cholesterol, 1,543 milligrams sodium.
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