Cane Syrup Makin' Day at Rikard's Mill has strong ties to Wilcox County

Boy Scouts feed sugar cane into mule-driven cane mill.

This past Saturday, I attended the Cane Syrup Makin’ Day event at Rikard’s Mill, an event that has strong connections to Wilcox County. This annual event, which is hosted by the Monroe County Museum, allows visitors to purchase fresh cane syrup, which is made on site during the event by volunteers operating an old-fashioned cane syrup mill. As many of you will know, Rikard’s Mill is located just off State Highway 265, between Beatrice and Chestnut, not far from the Wilcox-Monroe County line.

To make the cane syrup, volunteers, including a troop of Boy Scouts, fed long stalks of sugar cane into an old-timey cane syrup mill that was powered by a pair of mules that were swapped out from time to time. This mill pressed the juice out of each stalk, and the squeezed juice was then collected in buckets after it passed through a cheesecloth filter. Each bucket of juice was then poured into a large metal pot, which emptied through another cheesecloth filter into a large pan that sat atop a brick wood-burning furnace.

This large furnace, which was fed with wood throughout the day by volunteers, had to be kept above 200 degrees as the cane juice slowly made its way through the hot pan’s long series of baffled channels. This part of the process was expertly directed by Master Syrup Maker Kevin Avritt of Pine Hill, who comes from a long line of topnotch Wilcox County syrup makers.

As the cane juice made its way through the pan’s series of switchback channels, water was boiled out of the juice, creating thick white clouds of sweet-smelling steam. At the end of the pan, the finished product – thick cane syrup – emptied out of the hot pan and into a sink-type contraption, where volunteers sat filling Mason jars full of the brown, sweet-tasting syrup. From there, cardboard flats of these filled jars were taken to a big tent, where they were sold throughout the day to the hundreds of people who made their way to Rikard’s Mill to buy the freshest cane syrup to be had for many miles around.

In addition to Kevin Avritt’s important participation in this annual event, the Cane Syrup Makin’ Day at Rikard’s Mill also has other strong connections to Wilcox County. The mule-driven cane syrup mill used at Rikard’s Mill was actually found by the late Earnest Dyess of Camden, who found it years ago on his property. Dyess lovingly restored the old mill to working condition and donated it to the Monroe County Museum in 1997.

Sources say that the cane mill donated by Dyess was made in Selma in the 1880s by the Peacock Company of Ohio. At the time of its manufacture, this type of cane mill was state-of-the-art and made the production of syrup much faster. Also, I believe that the Peacock Company that manufactured the cane mill also owned the Selma foundry that manufactured the ornate metal steps that adorn the front of the Old Wilcox County Courthouse in downtown Camden.

In the end, if you’ve never been to the Cane Syrup Makin’ Day event at Rikard’s Mill, I highly recommend that you take the time to do so next November. Not only will you get the chance to buy fresh cane syrup, but you’ll also get the chance to see firsthand and up close how it’s made. No doubt, if you go to this event one time, you’ll look forward to going back again and again in the years to come.