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A Columbia County Boy's Recollections and Memories of Columbia County Florida (2012) Lenvil H. Dicks

Also, those few of my readers who have never tasted sugar cane juice, have really missed something
quite wonderful. Cane juice has a taste unlike anything else, and it is simply delicious.

We had a large kum-quat tree about 150 feet from the cane mill, and sometimes I would go over to the
kum-quat tree and pick a pocket full of kum-quats, and then cut them in two and squeeze the juice into a
large glass of cane juice. That kum-quat flavored juice had a taste unlike anything you could ever
imagine, and was unbelievably delicious.

Finally, years later, when I believe I was in the army, an extremely cold spell came along and killed that
kum-quat tree, which had grown to be the largest one I had ever seen.

When the cane juice had been boiled down to where my dad figured it was finished, he would take a
very large hoe, with a large cypress pole handle, and reach it up into the fire up underneath the boiler,
which we called the furnace, and pull out all of the hot coals and fire, which would cause the syrup to
immediately stop boiling, and he could take the large syrup dipper, which was on another long pole, and
remove it from the boiler.

We had large number three wash tubs to put the hot syrup in, and ma would make a strainer out of
flannel, and dad would attach that piece of flannel cloth over the wash tub, and fasten it to the edges
with clothes pins, and when he poured the syrup into the tub the flannel would strain out any further
impurities, and we could bottle the syrup in the bottles which would be crystal clear, except that it would
have the color which is typical of cane syrup. The syrup would thus have absolutely no impurities in it,
and I think that is why my dad’s syrup might have been in such high demand among all of the stores in
Lake City. He would have labels made to go on the bottles, which said "Pure Cane Syrup, Made By
John Dicks”.

Those labels were attached to the bottles with a home-made glue which ma made from corn starch. It
was probably inferior-type glue, but it would cause those labels to stay on the syrup bottles for many
months, until it was purchased and consumed by these customers in whatever store it was for sale in.

I remember one year during World War II that some fellow came along and told my daddy that he
would pay him an agreed upon amount which my dad interpreted to be a real good price, if my daddy
would just put all of the syrup into the metal syrup buckets with lids, and sell the entire crop to that
gentleman.

Now, that was a whole lot easier than putting all that syrup into bottles, with a funnel and a dipper, and
then put corks in the bottles. The buckets were much, much easier to handle.

Somebody said to my dad later on, and remember that my dad was a Baptist Preacher, “John, don’t you
know that fellow was buying that syrup just to make moonshine with?” My dad said, “Well, when I put
it in bottles and sell it, I don’t ever know what becomes of it, and once the man has paid me for the
syrup, I don’t care what he does with it.” The lesson I learned from that was that even though a man is
an Ordained Minister, there is no reason why he can’t also be a practical man.

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