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Perrie McCartha
claims braggin’ rights
for his cane patch
by Jaine Treadwell
All of his life Perrie Sylvester McCartha has loved to fool with a garden.
All of his life he has loved to grow things. |
Perrie McCartha with old fashioned cane that he plans to bed this winter. |
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After he went over the terrace toward his sunset years, he decided that he wanted to do something to “finish off my life.”
And, what better way for a professional plumber and electrician to “finish off” than with a cane patch that would give him
braggin’ rights, not just around his hometown of Ariton or even Dale County, but north, south, east and west as far as a crow could fly.
“Right now, I’ve got about two acres of sugar cane and that’s a lot of sugar cane for any hobby grower,” McCartha said. “I’ve got 15 different varieties of sugar cane on my farm, And, I just went down to the University of Florida and picked up seven more types. Next year, I doubt there will be anybody anywhere around with more different kinds of sugar cane than I’ll have. That’ll be one of my
braggin’ rights.” |
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McCartha draws a quart of the good stuff which he plans to sell in December. The price will be $3 a pint, $6 a quart, $10 a half gallon and $16 a gallon.
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But that won’t be McCartha’s only
braggin’ right and it may not even be his biggest. For he has more to brag about than sugar cane — something even better and probably more desirable.
For seven years, McCartha has been stripping his cane, cutting it down and then cooking it to
mouth-waterin’, biscuit soppin’ syrup. And he’s probably surprised at how many friends he has when his syrup is cooking off.
“Good, mighty good,” is the way McCartha describes his syrup. No one who has ever tasted it has disagreed.
However, he doesn’t take all the credit for some of the best cane syrup that can be found.
“Me and my brother, William, came up with the idea of finishing our lives off in the cane patch,” McCartha |
| said, with a chuckle. “And my friends, William Kellum and Tom Duke, are right there with us when we make syrup. Tom does the grinding and William does the
skimmin’. We make syrup the old fashioned way. That’s the best way; syrup making is a dying art, but it won’t die – not if we can help it.”
So, on the first three weekends in December, the four syrup-making “artists” will be at the kettle making syrup and folks will follow their noses to the sweet aroma that drifts across the fields and woodlands in the Dale County countryside. |
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“We’ll make between 150 and 200 gallons over the three weekends,” McCartha said. “We’ll get the fire going about 7 o’clock on Saturday morning and knock off about 2. We’re getting old and we get worn out, so we can’t go on much longer than that.”
McCartha’s old-fashioned way of making cane syrup is old-fashioned up to a point. He has discarded the old cast iron kettle for a more modern copper pan because turning on the gas is a lot easier than “choppin’ and
totin’ fire wood.”
“A copper pan cooks off better and in greater quantities and it’s a whole lot easier to control gas heat than it is a wood fire,” McCartha said. “And, like I said, |
McCartha and his grandson watch as water makes it way through the copper pan to clean it before the cane juice travels the same path on its way to syrup. |
| we’re
getting old.”
And, there’s more to making syrup than cooking it off. First the cane has to be stripped, cut and hauled to the cane mill.
“We grind cane right here as we’re making the syrup,” McCartha said. “I’ve got a Columbus cane mill that was made back in the 1930s and that’s a rather modern mill. We run the cane mill with a tractor. We want the juice ground the same day we make the syrup. Cane juice will sour and it won’t cook good and it sure won’t make good syrup. So, we want ours fresh ground.” |
McCartha’s cane patch felt the wrath of Hurricane Ivan. Many of the stalks were bent to the ground, but that doesn’t affect the taste of the cane or the syrup made from it. |
Usually, it takes about 10 gallons of juice to make one gallon of syrup, so there will be a lot of grindin’ goin’ on around the syrup kettle.
“Yeah, we’ll be busy all day and tired all night,” McCartha said, laughing.
Each type of cane gives the syrup a different flavor. McCartha’s favorite is
P.O.J. “That’s Pride of Jamaica and it makes some mighty good syrup,” McCartha said.
In years past, McCartha hasn’t charged for his cane syrup. But this year, with the cost of gas going through the roof, he’s going to have to ask for a little “donation.” |
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But whatever the cost, his cane syrup is worth it. No brag – although he could – just fact.
After all the syrup’s been made and bottled, McCartha still has work to do.
“What I cut down to plant next year in a different spot or what new types I’ll plant, I’ll lay in the ground and cover with dirt to keep the cold off of it,” he said. “A freeze will ruin it. Then, I’ll just sit back and wait until the spring and I’ll be at it again.”
Some of McCartha’s cane will come up from this year’s crop, but either way he grows it, he depends on the folks down at the Dale Farmers Cooperative in Ariton to get him off to the right start.
“In the spring, I put out some 5-10-15 fertilizer as soon as the cane comes up,” he said. “That 5 percent nitrogen, 10 percent phosphate and 15 percent potash and that’s just the right combination for growing sugar cane.”
Robert Peters, manager of the Dale Farmers Cooperative, is familiar with McCartha’s sugar cane operation and knows how to advise him.
“He’s a lot of help,” McCartha said. “Everybody at the Co-op is. I don’t know what I would do without them and I know farmers really depend on them. It’s good to have them around.”
When the cane is about 12- to 18-inches high, McCartha’s back at the Co-op buying cottonseed meal.
“I spread it out over the cane patch with a spreader and it brings out the sweetness of the cane and gives it a better flavor,” he said. “The sweeter and better the cane, the sweeter and better the syrup it’ll make.”
McCartha depends on Mother Nature to water his crops, but he also knows that she’s a fickle lady.
“Cane’s got to have water at the proper time or it won’t be a bit of good,” he said. “So, I put in an irrigation system, just in case. I tend my cane patch like it needs to be tended. If I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it the best way I know how. After all, this cane patch is what I’m finishing out on.”
So, McCartha wants his cane patch to be just right – braggin’ right.
Directions to McCartha syrup making the first three Saturdays in December: Turn on County Road 123 just south of Veterans Memorial Bridge between Brundidge and Ozark. Travel 9.6 miles on 123 (through Ariton). Turn left on County Road 221 and go .8 mile and turn left on a dirt road. Follow the dirt road to the syrup making. For more information call (334) 618-4554.
Jaine Treadwell is a freelance writer from Brundidge. |
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