‘How Sweet It Is’ Holding on to traditions of the past in the New Year

As thousands looked to the future while ringing in the New Year, two Enterprise men continued their work to keep century-old traditions alive.

Earl Stokes and his brother, Buddy, have sacrificed an untold number of hours working to produce sugar cane syrup.

"A way of life is just dying. Prior to 1900 everybody depended on making syrup," Stokes said while he and Buddy fed sugar cane into a mill to begin the syrup-making process.

Stokes found a rusted 1904 mill that was used in making cane syrup about five years ago. He and Buddy refurbished the mill, which was originally designed to be powered by a tractor.

The men attached the antique to a diesel motor so it would be operational again.

Once the refurbishment was complete, the men decided together (though Buddy said it was by default as Stokes' brother) they would work to keep the syrup-making tradition alive.

Though he is fast to describe the labor that making syrup requires, Buddy will also openly describe the fond memories cane syrup cultivates.

"I used to buy pieces of cane when I was a kid and chew on them during the day," he said, demonstrating the way a stalk would be cut and eaten.

As a young man, Buddy would purchase the cane from a man who travelled throughout Enterprise selling both sugar canes and syrup.

"Enterprise was different than it is now. People would use the syrup or cane juice as their sweetener in cookies and cakes," Buddy recalled. "They would also spread it out and let it dry and make candy out of it. A bunch of people are probably raised now only knowing about maple syrup or the kind of syrup you buy in a store. A lot of people depended on this syrup."

The men, in making cane syrup, have attempted to capture the many uses of the syrup and be as historically authentic as possible in making the sugary treat.

Stokes grows green sugar cane on his property.

"You have purple, red and green sugar cane. I found that the green has more juice and holds up in the wind," Stokes said.

He and Buddy take cane ready for harvest and grind it through a mill, separating cane juices from the fibrous substance known as bagasse that makes up the sugar cane.

Sediment is removed from the juice and Stokes bottles some of the juice and uses the remainder to make syrup.

Using a large caldron, the juice is boiled for several hours at more than 200 degrees Fahrenheit until it begins to thicken.

The juice must be monitored as it boils, Stokes said. It is important to skim off any foam that forms on the juice.

"You want to make sure you cook the impurities out of it," he said.

Once the cooking process is complete, Stokes sells the syrup to locals who want to "remember the good ole' days" and youngsters looking to try a taste from the past.

"It is a heritage that like to have died completely out. Now the interest has picked up," Stokes said.

Interest in making the syrup has grown to such heights that Stokes even established a Syrup Makers' Association that meets the first Saturday of every month at 8 a.m. at Ryan's.

"This is kinda like a family thing. I personally think that in the future we may return to how it once was...if you don't make it or grow it then you go without it," he said.