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EXPLORING
KENTUCKY - August 2004 by Katherine Tandy Brown Sorghum Reigns Again in Hancock County
Located between Owensboro and Louisville, right on the Ohio River, Hancock County once was known as the Sorghum Capital of the World. But through the years, due to the crop’s labor-intensive nature and decreasing market demands, production tapered down, and the festival took a hiatus. That was until County Judge Executive Jack McCaslin asked County Extension Agent Diane Perkins to help find a way to promote the county – its agricultural production in general and a pocket of sweet sorghum makers in particular – to bring in more tourists. What, he asked, did the county have that was different? At one time, 100 producers had raised sorghum here. The crop had played an important part in the community’s history, Perkins offered. Thus in September 2001, the Hancock County Sorghum Festival was reborn, and even though Mother Nature refused to cooperate, the plan worked beautifully. “That first year, about 1,000 people came,” said Perkins. “It poured down rain, and they just kept coming anyway. The next year, we had 2,000, and last year, 4,000.” Showcasing home-based talent from the county’s ag-related industries, the festival differs from others around the state in that local growers tend a small plot of sweet sorghum cane on the festival site at the county fairgrounds to show it growing on the stalk. Though most now use mechanized mills, several producers grow a half-acre each offsite to demonstrate old-fashioned cane grinding with a horse- or mule-powered mill at the festival. Slowly, the juice is squeezed out of the grass and then boiled, just like maple syrup, until many hours later, golden sweet syrup emerges. At Hawesville, folks can slurp the thick amber liquid on hot biscuits, eat their fill in a sorghum-tasting contest, sample foods made from sorghum and of course, buy take-home jars. Lest you think the sticky stuff is but a decadent delight, sorghum was prescribed as a daily supplement by many doctors in pre-vitamin days. It’s rich in iron, calcium and potassium and high in antioxidants, which, according to Cheryl Forberg, R.D., author of Stop the Clock Cooking, can reduce the aging process. And you’ll be supporting an $8 to 10 million Kentucky industry. Along with Tennessee, the Commonwealth leads eight sweet sorghum states in the Southeast that produce about 90 percent of the nation’s total output, thanks to a longer growing season and ample moisture. At least 200 producers now make sorghum statewide, 75 percent of whom raise less than three to four acres. A good cash crop that can net $2,000 per acre, sweet sorghum is a viable small farm replacement crop for tobacco, according to Morris Bitzer, retired grain crop research extension specialist for the University of Kentucky. As a result, production is on the upsurge. The largest grower in the Commonwealth, Danny Townsend of Jeffersonville, is shooting for 75 to 80 acres this year, feasible due to state-of-the-art equipment. Selling his syrup as Sweet Appalachian Sorghum, he also owns a mule-drawn mill and a wood-fired furnace and travels to festivals. It’s important, he says, to keep that heritage alive. Educational and family-oriented, the Hawesville event features a slew of activities that set grandparents to waxing nostalgic and kids to amazement at the possibilities of totally unplugged fun at a fete with no carnival rides. “So many parents said they had to drag their kids away from the pioneer exhibit,” says Stephanie Lamar, executive assistant to Judge McCaslin. “They’re getting to experience history and having a great time in the process.” In that “pioneer exhibit,” 10 different living history demonstrations show how our forefathers made it through their days by pumping water, making dough for bread, using a wringer washer, grinding cornmeal, weaving baskets, making brooms, et al. You can watch a blacksmith forging iron, quilt makers stitching and piecing, and huge, gentle oxen pulling a covered wagon. At several full-sized tepees, Native Americans ply traditional crafts, such as hot stone cooking and archery. Moving forward a century or so, mechanical horsepower hooks up with dead weight at a U.S. Antique Pullers Association tractor-pulling contest, and a big Kabota tractor is the engine for a kid-sized train made by the Hancock County Sorghum Growers from 55-gallon barrels. Get the whole skinny from the Hancock County Tourist Commission at (270) 314-5688 or email the Extension Service at dmperkin@uky.edu.
Katherine Tandy
Brown is a staff writer for The Lane Report. |
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Copyright 1996-2004, by Kentucky Business Online. All rights reserved. Editorial content
is copyright 2004, Lane Communications Group The Lane Report is a trademark of Lane Communications Group. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
Want to give your kids – and yourself – a sweet taste of the good ol’ days? Then come the last Saturday and Sunday in September, just turn off the TV, log off the Internet, roll down those car windows and head to Hawesville for the fourth annual Hancock County Sorghum Festival. 
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