Sandhill Farm Article In Sauce Magazine

Sweet sorghum syrup from Sandhill Farm, organically grown and processed
near Rutledge, Mo., is ready for seasonal shoppers just in time for the
holidays. Today, it’s an unusual ingredient for most American cooks,
but in the 1880s it was a common, inexpensive sweetener.

“A hundred years ago most rural communities would have sorghum
processors every five or 10 miles,” said Stan Hildebrand, a member of
the Sandhill Farm community. “Each farm would grow a patch of sorghum,
take it to the processor and have their sweetener for the whole year.”
In fact, Sandhill’s sorghum production began just that way. “There was
an old-time couple in the area near Sandhill in the ’70s who cooked the
syrup,” said Hildebrand. “At first, we just grew some sorghum
cane and processed it with the older couple. Then we started cooking
our own.” The members of the Sandhill community work each fall with
interns, friends and other cooperatives to process the sorghum cane
into syrup.

Sandhill intern Heather Osborn of Ottawa, Canada, worked her first
sorghum harvest this fall. Her internship in the simple life began
high-tech with an Internet search for organic farming communities. “I
didn’t even know what sorghum was when I came,” said Osborn. “The
social scene was always morphing here as people came and went to help
with the sorghum. I counted about 45 people working, visiting. Lots of
work, but it was fun, too.”

In this intentionally egalitarian community where everything is shared,
the harvest provides food and income for the members, much in the way
small farms did 100 years ago. In addition to the sorghum syrup, honey
and prepared mustard it sells at the Web site www.sandhillfarm.org,
Sandhill also sells seasonal items like frozen tempeh, hard-necked
Sandhill garlic, horseradish and salsas at harvest fairs and at the
farm.

The stylish blue, white and yellow Sandhill Farm sorghum label lists
only one ingredient: organic sorghum cane juice. Dark amber in color,
the syrup has a nice viscosity; it’s easier to measure than honey or
molasses. Sorghum smells light and tangy, with no hint of the sulfurous
odor that characterizes molasses. A taste straight from the jar is
sweet and lively. One can just imagine how good it will taste in
gingerbread, baked beans and barbecue sauce. Plus, it’s one of those
enjoyable good-for-you things. “As a sweetener, the nutritional value
is not much, but sorghum has more minerals and enzymes than honey,”
said Hildebrand. “Plus it’s high in antioxidants.”

Locally, Wild Oats Natural Marketplace in Ladue carries Sandhill Farm
sorghum. It’s in the baking aisle near the brown sugar, not with the
honey and molasses where one might expect to find it.

Black Bear Bakery mixes sorghum in its pumpkin pies, sorghum multigrain
loaf, muffins and granola. Baker bobEE Sweet said, “We use sorghum
because it’s flavorful and it’s locally produced. Plus we’re a
cooperative, like Sandhill. We like to support other cooperatives.”
The Buying Group of St. Louis, an organic food cooperative, is another
Sandhill customer. “We buy sorghum, tempe and honey from Sandhill
Farm,” said Marie Andrews. A Buying Group member for 16 years, Andrews
said she likes the cooperative model of shared effort and good food.
Each member works about four hours a month.

Measure for measure, the home cook can substitute sorghum for honey,
corn syrup, molasses or maple syrup. Because it’s sweeter than
molasses, bakers will need to reduce the white sugar in cookie and pie
recipes by about a third when using sorghum. The Sandhill label
recommends substituting one-half cup of sorghum for one cup of white
sugar.

Hildebrand makes it clear sorghum is not molasses. “When we sell at
harvest festivals, older folks sometimes ask for ‘sorghum molasses.’
Molasses is a by-product of white sugar cane, while sorghum is a whole
food product.”