China Business 20/20 Insight

Book excerpt: It is 1934, a Depression year, and ten-year-old Cammie Kirkland is glad that her family owns a cane mill. As long as she can remember, her family has raised acres of sorghum cane on their small North Carolina farm and from it, made molasses to sell in small grocery stores in Winston Salem. This year she and her cousin Ben are (proudly) old enough to be of real help in the family business. The stories cover the entire cane growing and molasses-making season--from spring planting of the tiny seeds and thinning of the young cane sprouts, to the concentrated fall jobs of stripping off the leaves, boiling the juice to make molasses, canning the syrup, and selling the finished product. Accounts of other farm activities, such as the fun of making valentines, burying a treasure trove, helping with the wheat-threshing dinners, and attending 4-H camp are included.