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The ADVANCE, November 29, 2023/Page 4A
It’s a Family Tradition
Powell and Home Families Making Syrup for Four Generations
WATCHING THE SYRUP BOIL — B.L. Horne keeps an eye on the kettle as he stops occasionally to greet guests at the
annual syrup making event outside of Glenwood on November 18. He is on his last batch of syrup, having started
the boilings two days earlier.
ger, is an educator who just
this year assumed the posi
tion of middle school prin
cipal at Wheeler County
School in Alamo. The
Hornes have two daugh
ters, Alayna, 13, and Lydia,
16. B.L.’s parents Louella
Powell Horne and Colen
Horne, Sr. live close by.
When Louella and
Colen married, B.L. Pow
ell enlisted the help of his
son-in-law in work on his
Treutlen County farm, and
that included cultivating
sugar cane and syrup mak
ing. “You talk about doing
some work, I have done it
in the past,” Colen said of
helping his father-in-law
on the farm. Syrup making
time was fondly anticipat
ed but also dreaded. “He’d
work the fool out of us
stripping, topping, cutting
down, and loading the cane
and carrying it to the mill.
For two months I’d go over
every day getting ready to
make syrup.” There was
also the fall hog butchering
on top of everything else
that had to be done.
But the hard work
always paid off. In those
days, families were self-
sufficient. Colen not only
formed a strong work eth
ic, but gained useful skills
he could pass along to his
children and grandchildren
who still practice what he
taught them.
to stabilize the cane syrup
have risen to the point that
cane syrup is not only un
profitable, it is downright
costly. “Bottles have gone
from $7.90 a case to $10 a
case. Corn syrup had gone
from $38 for a five-gallon
bucket to over $50 a buck-
et.
Colen reflected that
he has been involved in
syrup pretty much since he
was discharged from mili
tary service and married
Louella. Even though he
was taken under B.L. Pow
ell’s wing, so to speak, and
taught all about farming,
he didn’t end up making a
career of farming himself.
He worked for the prison
system and ended up plant
ing pine trees. Now, like his
wife, a former teacher, Co
len is retired and enjoys su
pervising the syrup making
at his son’s farm. “A couple
of years ago, I turned it all
over to him and I just come
to enjoy it,” he said.
“He has modernized
what we used to do and
made it easier,” Colen said
of how his son has stream
lined the syrup making
process.
In the old days, B.L.
Powell used a mule to pull
the grinder. “We use a
Deere — ajohn Deere trac
tor,” B.L. Horne quipped.
A tractor-driven grinder
makes squeezing the juice
from the cane easier, faster
and more efficient. The
juice is crushed between
rollers, collected in a vat at
the bottom of the grinder,
pumped into a 100-gallon
overhead holding tank,
and funneled to the kettle
for cooking. The process is
much less labor intensive
than in the old days when
the juice was collected in
Number 3 wash tubs, cov-
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READY TO ROLL—Stripped sugar cane stalks lie on a wagon waiting to be rolled through
the grinder. The cane the Horne family favors is a variety called Improved POJ, but they
have tried numerous others.
Louella said her father,
who passed away in 2012,
lived in Treutlen for the rest
of his life after marrying
Jimmie Hardy. The Hardy
family had a long history in
the county; Jimmie’s father
was farmer Charles Mack
Hardy. Louella recalls how
her father set aside mayon
naise jars all year for syrup
bottling. The recycled jars
might have saved some
money, but preparing the
jars for bottling syrup was
an arduous task. “We had
to soak the jars to remove
the labels, scrape off the la
bels, then scald and sanitize
the jars,” Colen shared. He
lamented that the price of
bottles and corn syrup used
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By Deborah Clark
Regional Editor
dclarkadvance@gmail. com
Every year on the
weekend before Thanks
giving, a Wheeler County
family gathers to continue
a tradition now in its fourth
generation. Sugar cane is
harvested and ground, the
juice is filtered and poured
into a 100-gallon cast iron
kettle, and the process of
syrup making gets under
way.
It all began with B.L.
Powell in Treutlen County
in the early years of the
20th century as the hard
working farmer harvested
sugar cane and boiled it
down to make syrup. His
annual syrup making was
not just for producing a
commodity people needed
and wanted, it was an op
portunity to hold gather
ings for family and friends.
Years ago, syrup boils
were commonplace in the
South. Families depended
on the syrup as a sweetener
because sugar was expen
sive and scarce. Almost ev
ery farm boy learned about
the process from his elders,
and it was just expected
that the tradition would
be carried on. But syrup
making is time-consuming,
intensive, and exact, from
cultivating and harvesting
the cane, to stripping the
leaves from the stalks and
grinding the cane to extract
the juice, to spending five
to six hours over a steaming
cauldron to produce the
syrup. It takes skill to keep
the cooking temperature
high enough to boil but low
enough not to scorch (228
degrees), and constant
skimming to remove impu
rities as the syrup cooks.
Now, only the heartiest
of souls have continued the
tradition to ensure the art
of sugar cane syrup making
is not lost to the ages, and,
as in the case of the Powell
descendants, because the
process also brings togeth
er family and community.
The Powell and Horne
Families
B.L. Horne, named for
his maternal grandfather
B.L. Powell, is now at the
helm of his family’s annual
syrup making, but he has
an army of kin and friends
supporting him in his en
deavors. B.L.s home is lo
cated about six miles north
of Glenwood on Georgia
Highway 19. His wife, Gin
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