10 New Reasons to Love Ol' Sorghum 3-30-13

7/29/2019 10 New Reasons to Love Ol' Sorghum 3-30-13

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10 New Reasonsto Love Ol Sorghum

How Sorghums Goodness

Can Help Us And Our Communities

Be Healthy, Wealthy and Happy


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A Survey

How many plan to grow sorghum (akasorghum molasses) this year?

How many have grown or cookedsorghum in the past?

How many have a jar of good sorghum

in your house? How many have tasted sorghum thismonth? Week? Today?


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Gratitude to the ones who brought the seeds,


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and to the Ones Who Came Before


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including my family,and maybe yours,


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


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


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Can somethingso delicious also be

important and useful?


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YES!oui

si you bet

absolutely

certainly

suredefinitely

hide and watch usaffirmative

yep

can A. Davis block shots?

oh yeah


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10: It tastes good.Eating more sorghumleads to pleasure.


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In Stop the Clock! CookingDefy Aging, Cheryl Forberg citesUSDA findings that sorghum syrup ranks fifth among foods

that neutralize free radicals in our bodies.

9: Better health!


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8: Farm income! Sorghum salessupportour small farms and farm families.


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Like the Casey County familiesinvolved in making

pure Oberholtzer sorghum


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


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Like the Townsends of Townsend Sorghum MillIn Jeffersonville (Montgomery County)


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When growerssell sorghum

for thousandsper acre--

thats goodall around..


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Time-out for Sorghum Math Present retail prices per pint in Kentucky (online)

range from $5 - $8 (with one seller charging $12/halfpint).

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 couldexceed $3,000/acre on average, and could be higher.

Yields per acre vary by year, soil, grower, cook, seedvariety, and more.

Source: Sweet Sorghum for Syrup, UK College of Ag and Cooperative Extension, 2009


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Dollars fromsorghum salescirculate in

communitieslike Liberty andWest Liberty,Versailles

And Princeton.Every $1 spentlocally generatesan additional 68cents in localeconomic activity.

7. Community wealth


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The Festival helps, too.


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Eating more sorghum leads toBuying more sorghum, which leads to growers

Growing more sorghum, which leads toMore farm income, which leads toCommunity wealth.And thats good for all of us.


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Sorghum, sweet and dear, leads to Greater Commonwealth.


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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 handmadegoods, 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


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6. Self Sufficiency

Sorghum is a freedom food for Kentuckians,both eaters and growers.

Sorghum is one of the few farm-producedcommodities that does not leave the farmer ahapless victim of the marketplace. As long assupply continues to lag well behind demand,farmers can continue to charge profitableprices on both retail and wholesale levels.

Source: Sweet Sorghum Production and Processing, by GeorgeKuepper for the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture


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Time to pour it on!


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5, 4, 3, 2, 1

5. Sorghum cane feeds lightly on soil andgrows well in poor soils.

4. Even conventional production requiresminimal 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!


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Our familys traditional cookie!


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What can we each do?

Top or sweeten with sorghum: oatmeal, tea, hot lemonade,

coffee,biscuits

,cornbread

,spoonbread, pancakes,

bagels, waffles, French toastCook with sorghum: baked beans, roast vegetables, bakedfruit, pies, cakes, cookies, sauces, glazes, saladdressings, ice cream, popcorn balls

Ask for sorghum at restaurants, bakeries, and cafGive cooks and food-lovers sorghum as giftsSponsorschool contests or clubs that encourage sorghumcultivation and production

Askfor sorghum at your farmers markets, and ask fordemonstrations and tastingsEncourage Cooperative Extension to support sorghumcane cultivation and sorghum production and marketingBefriend a good sorghum-maker and introduce him/her toeveryone you know


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Resources: www.sweetsweetsorghum.com


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Questions? Comments?


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My lovesong tosorghum.

With recipes.


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Photo credits:

Mick JeffriesGeoff MaddockRona Roberts

Copyright Savoring Kentucky 2013

10 New Reasons to Love Ol' Sorghum 3-30-13

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Transcript of 10 New Reasons to Love Ol' Sorghum 3-30-13