Chewing on Sugar Cane Pulp with My Dad.

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   Leroyworldposted 12 years ago

   That was something that my dad showed me was possible.  You really can't swallow the pulp of sugarcane; but, it is incredibly sweet and the taste lasts a while.  There are some stores around that sell sugar cane; and, I occasionally relive the memory of him cutting a wild sugar cane for me.  Food - I suppose sugar cane is food - really does hold a lot of memories for people. 
   
   Anyone care to share their favorite food that calls up a memory?   Or maybe someone can tell a short story through food?  It seems that food can nourish the soul along with the body.

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      Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I've eaten many a stalk of sugar cane in my lifetime, as well as, growing it, cutting it, and eventually producing gallon jars of cane syrup to be stored away for the winter months.  Of course, that was when I was a child.
      
      My dad said they always made several hundred gallons of cane syrup and smoked 8-10 hogs to last them through the winter.  They didn't have much money but they ate well! 
      
      
      
      
                                             

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         habeeposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         When I was a kid, I remember my dad bringing home stalks of cane for chewing. He also enjoyed drinking cane juice, but I didn't. My ex used to grow cane, and a neighbor made it into syrup for us. Country folk can survive!
         
         Dad used to also bring home pomegranates from his store occasionally, and my best friend, Beth, and I would sit on the front porch and eat pomegranates until our hands turned brown.

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            Leroyworldposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I like the last line about your hands turning brown from the pomegranates.  That is a really  nice turn of a phrase.

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         Leroyworldposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Randy,
         I see from your profile that you are in Georgia.  My dad grew up on a dairy farm in Alabama, near the Gulf of Mexico.  Thanks for sharing. 
         
         I will have to look into smoking hogs.  I assume that was done to preserve the pork with out having to freeze it.

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            Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Sure, there was no other way to keep meat in the south during my grandparent's time.  Smoked ham, sausages, bacon and shoulders were all packed in salt and then smoked to remove the moisture.  I can still smell my grandfather's smokehouse whe we'd go cut some bacon for breakfast.  You can't find real smoked meats anymore, but people are beginning to learn this old art again.
            
            
            
            
            
            
                                                   
            

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               Eaglekiwiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I lived in SC for almost 18mths and down the road from this smokehouse, ohhhh I can still smell the aroma of barbecued, hickory(?) pork coming from that smokehouse.
               
               Strolled down one Sat afternoon and enjoyed a mountain of food for $6 !!! ,hubby teased saying ,hey her plates bigger, the girl said ..Aww honey her accents cuter lol...
               
               Was in heaven.

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   Wesman Todd Shawposted 12 years ago

   Sugar is patient, sugar is kind....from the famous letter to the  sugar Canenthians...or something.
   
   Dude, I literally do not get why anyone would poison their bodies with carcinogenic saccharine, or brain damage Monsanto aspartame....when Donald Rumsfeld made twelve million on the FDA approval of a product - that's all the proof in the world that could ever be needed that it's toxic waste in every possible way, and dozens more known by the promoters and manufacturers, and explicitly excluded or otherwise buried...for exactly the reasons that folks think a common nut is nuts for thinking.
   
   
   
   Of course I flavour everything with anti freeze - so perhaps my stated facts and drawn conclusions are hazy due to my lack of homoeostasis as a current physiological reality ....
   
   Dude...I wanna chew on cocoa leaves and pretend I'm Hugo Chavez.....and then I want to organize my military (oops!  Am I in Columbia...or what's that other nation South of Texas?)...so that they can fly North to El Norteno, and spray the American Tobacco fields with agent orange...the Americans sell Tobacco which kills more of my Columbian comrades per year than does our fine cocaine in America....how the hell is it that those rude, arrogant, imperious and idiotic Americans can justify spraying Columbian cocoa farmers livelihoods with herbicide whilst America sells tobacco cancer, etc - to the entire world with impunity.  .....(sorry, couldn't maintain my pseudo South American lapse into character...whatever)?????????????
   
   
   
   Seems like I had a notion to mention that Stevia (sic) the stuff from some sort of cactus...is a decent enough sweetener.
   
   Big Pharma wants you on dope...THEIR legal dope, not the less dangerous street dope, and they want you to spend all you've got for health insurance to pay for part of your dope...which never treats the problem, btw, just the symptoms.
   
   You know what I discovered sort of late in life????  Figs right off a fig tree are effing AWESOME!  I thought previously that elves or something had to turn them into some sort of pseudo cookie in order for them to shine.
   
   I've been wrong about a thing or two over the years....

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      Leroyworldposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      My mom spent a lot of time trying to convince me that saccharine tasted exactly like sugar.  I could always tell the difference, so I am not sure why she kept trying.   
      
      I cannot stand the taste of it or any of the artificial substitutes that pop up.  I have not tried stevia, but why should I try that?  Sugar works just fine and I understand not to overdo that. 
      
      I can get fresh figs from a tree, or is it a bush,  in my back yard.  That is a natural source of sugar that I can get into..  I just have to remember to clean off the bird poop before I bite into a fig.

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         Wesman Todd Shawposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Saccharine tastes NOTHING like sugar!!!  I'm not sure why that stuff was ever even considered a sweetener...it's like something I'd use to foul the taste of something someone I dislike was consuming.
         
         
         
         Oh I'd never buy stevia either....I only found out about it for having to ask my own Mother what she'd done to the Tea that I was drinking. :-/
         
         Splenda??????????????  That stuff is too new to trust - especially considering who's the head of the FDA under the Obama administration - nobody in their right mind trusts a lawyer for the company that sold agent orange to the US military as if it was safe to handle...and then denied any and all responsibility.
         
         Agent Orange is merely a minor part of Monsanto's evil history though, guess Bill Gates wasn't a History major.....

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            Eaglekiwiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            How another nationality sees American snack foods
            
            http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/blogs/voy … d-marathon
            
            Dont mean to divert away from OP but thought the readers of that particular blog might appreciate your wisdom and passion Wes

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