While most of the sugarcane growing in south Louisiana fields is destined for large-scale mills, a few backyard syrup producers still make syrup for home use.  In Gray, LA, Amy and Tracy Baudoin produce small-batch cane syrup from their own sugarcane.  The Baudoins plant and harvest their own half-acre patch of cane, which ends up as their “Sweet Memories” brand syrup.  Right now, their family is busy with grinding, multi-stage boiling, straining, and syrup bottling, a process that stretches into early winter.

Read about the Baudoins in the Lafourche Daily Comet; watch a video of the syrup-making process here. Look for their “Sweet Memories” cane syrup at local festivals.

In related sugar news, a burglary ring in Assumption Parish targeted antique sugar kettles….deputies on the tail of the alleged thieves chased them on horseback into nearby cane fields, whose thick, 14-foot growth hid them nicely.  Not to worry–the forces of good caught up with them several days later. I’m amazed that anyone (or even a group of people) would try to steal impossibly heavy 36″ wide cast-iron sugar kettles…