George Singleton tells of making cane syrup the old-fashioned way

Lyle Salter and Clarance Salter tend syrup kettle.

(For decades, local historian and paranormal investigator George “Buster” Singleton published a weekly newspaper column called “Somewhere in Time.” The column below, which was titled “Some still make old-fashioned syrup” was originally published in the Oct. 23, 1975 edition of The Monroe Journal in Monroeville, Ala.)

On the morning of Oct. 11 when most people were still in bed, Clarance Salter and his son, Lyle Salter, of Monroeville were getting ready to pursue an age-old custom: making cane syrup the old-fashioned way.

If you visit Lyle Salter’s yard, the first thing you will notice is that he collects almost everything. You will notice the mule-drawn cane mill erected where there is plenty of room for the mule to travel in a wide circle as he pulls the mill round and round.

A little farther over you will notice the old syrup kettle that the cane juice is put into to be cooked until the delicious cane syrup is left in the bottom of the kettle.

Most of the modern syrup makers use the syrup pan or circular to cook in. The old kettles varied in size from around 30 gallons to 100-gallon capacity. This particular kettle held 60 gallons.

The general rule of thumb is that it takes seven gallons of cane juice to make one gallon of syrup. The juice has to be boiled for a long period of time before the water has evaporated from the juice, leaving the golden-colored, delicious-tasting syrup.

As I stood there near the hot-steaming kettle and watched Clarance Salter dip the skimmings from the boiling juice, I remembered that some of my fondest moments were around the cane mill at syrup-making time.

The day would start in the early morning hours close to 3 a.m. The fires were lighted under the large kettle that sat over a type of brick furnace. The fat pine chunks were fed into the fire until the warmth could be felt quite a distance away.

The mule was hitched to the cane mill and the grinding of the cane was started. One mule always was kept harnessed and in reserve nearby, because if they weren’t rotated at regular intervals, the mule that was pulling the mill would get sick from going round and round.

The first batch of fresh cooked syrup was usually ready to be sampled around eight o’clock in the morning. Just prior to the tasting, someone went up to the house to return a few minutes later with a dishpan full of hot biscuits, a plate of butter, another pan of fried lean meat and all the eating equipment necessary to eat hot syrup and buttered biscuits. A large coffee pot always sat near the fire during the cooking so there was plenty of hot coffee for the asking.

To a young boy on a cold brisk morning, this was almost as near heaven as he wanted to be, sitting there by the warm fire with a plate of fresh cooked syrup mixed all together with chunks of pure butter. To take one of those delicious biscuits, as I remember, and lay it on top of the syrup and butter along with a large slice of fried lean meat, was a delicacy beyond words.

After drinking my fill of the cold cane juice, as I watched Clarance Salter carefully dip the skimmings from the boiling juice, I could see that somewhere in his past 65 years, another young boy had stood beside another syrup kettle and had tasted and dreamed, and now again was being remembered.

(Singleton, the author of the 1991 book “Of Foxfire and Phantom Soldiers,” passed away at the age of 79 on July 19, 2007. A longtime resident of Monroeville, he was born to Vincent William Singleton and Frances Cornelia Faile Singleton, during a late-night thunderstorm, on Dec. 14, 1927 in Marengo County, graduated from Sweet Water High School in 1946, served as a U.S. Marine paratrooper in the Korean War, worked as a riverboat deckhand, lived for a time among Apache Indians, moved to Monroe County on June 28, 1964 and served as the administrator of the Monroeville National Guard unit from June 28, 1964 to Dec. 14, 1987. He was promoted from the enlisted ranks to warrant officer in May 1972. For years, Singleton’s columns, titled “Monroe County history – Did you know?” and “Somewhere in Time” appeared in The Monroe Journal, and he wrote a lengthy series of articles about Monroe County that appeared in Alabama Life magazine. It’s believed that his first column appeared in the March 25, 1971 edition of The Monroe Journal. He also helped organize the Monroe County Museum and Historical Society and was also a past president of that organization. He is buried in Pineville Cemetery in Monroeville. The column above and all of Singleton’s other columns are available to the public through the microfilm records at the Monroe County Public Library in Monroeville. Singleton’s columns are presented here each week for research and scholarship purposes and as part of an effort to keep his work and memory alive.)