Ponton Family will be making Sorghum Juice into Syrup at Chisholm Trail Day Festival
by Cecilia Harris
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| Ponton's Syrup Demonstration |
Debbie Ponton and her family respect the old ways and believe
it’s important to remember the past. At the 36th annual Chisholm Trail Day Festival on Oct. 4 at the Heritage Center in Abilene, the Pontons
once again will show how early-day settlers turned sorghum juice into syrup.
The Pontons have been demonstrating the process since the very first Festival in 1979, beginning with family patriarch Leo Ponton followed by Debbie and her husband, Mike, and their family continuing the tradition to teach a new generation about the life of hard working pioneers.
“We enjoy showing the process to people and they are fascinated by it,” Debbie says, adding it is the only demonstration at the festival that requires a horse or mule, reflecting the days when livestock did much of the work on the farm.
The Pontons, of rural Longford, grow their own sorghum and bring their own press and mule to the Festival. As the mule circles the press it provides the power to squeeze juice from the stripped canes. The collected juice then is boiled down to a sweet, dark, heavy syrup in a cooker over a wood fire. The process is time consuming and labor intensive as the fire must be kept at a constant temperature, the mixture must be stirred as it thickens, and the green foam of impurities that forms on the top must be skimmed to ensure a clear, flavorful syrup.
“The cooking takes the longest, it takes about five hours,” Ponton says. “We start with five gallons of juice and get about one gallon of syrup.”
Dressed in pioneer attire at the Festival, family members resemble the hearty souls that tamed the Wild West by working together. Neighbors would gather at the site of the press to spend the day making sorghum syrup which was used as a sweetener because sugar wasn’t readily available, Debbie says.
“They all brought their sorghum to the press and the women would bring food for lunch because it took all day for the pioneers to get it done as it was a lot of work. Then they would all go home with their share of the syrup.”
The Pontons also spend a day making their own syrup at home which they bottle into jars they seal for future use as an ingredient in cookies and baked beans or spread on pancakes and bread.
“I make my own brown sugar by mixing a fourth of a cup of syrup to two cups of sugar,” Debbie says. “It makes cookies taste so much better.”
Other living history demonstrations at the Festival include cider pressing, chair caning, soap making, blacksmithing, quilting, wheat weaving, wood carving, bread baking, rope making, corn shelling and grinding, spinning and weaving, and saw mill operation.
Musical and history-related entertainment is offered throughout the activity-filled day that also features farm tractor games and power pull amidst a display of antique farm machinery and cars.
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Chisholm Trail Day Information:
It’s time to saddle up and head to the 36th Annual Chisholm Trail Day Festival, on Saturday, October 4, 2013 at the Heritage Center Museum, 412 S. Campbell in Abilene, Kansas from 10 am to 4 pm. The admission is $7 per adults and children 12 and under is $2.
The Pontons have been demonstrating the process since the very first Festival in 1979, beginning with family patriarch Leo Ponton followed by Debbie and her husband, Mike, and their family continuing the tradition to teach a new generation about the life of hard working pioneers.
“We enjoy showing the process to people and they are fascinated by it,” Debbie says, adding it is the only demonstration at the festival that requires a horse or mule, reflecting the days when livestock did much of the work on the farm.
The Pontons, of rural Longford, grow their own sorghum and bring their own press and mule to the Festival. As the mule circles the press it provides the power to squeeze juice from the stripped canes. The collected juice then is boiled down to a sweet, dark, heavy syrup in a cooker over a wood fire. The process is time consuming and labor intensive as the fire must be kept at a constant temperature, the mixture must be stirred as it thickens, and the green foam of impurities that forms on the top must be skimmed to ensure a clear, flavorful syrup.
“The cooking takes the longest, it takes about five hours,” Ponton says. “We start with five gallons of juice and get about one gallon of syrup.”
Dressed in pioneer attire at the Festival, family members resemble the hearty souls that tamed the Wild West by working together. Neighbors would gather at the site of the press to spend the day making sorghum syrup which was used as a sweetener because sugar wasn’t readily available, Debbie says.
“They all brought their sorghum to the press and the women would bring food for lunch because it took all day for the pioneers to get it done as it was a lot of work. Then they would all go home with their share of the syrup.”
The Pontons also spend a day making their own syrup at home which they bottle into jars they seal for future use as an ingredient in cookies and baked beans or spread on pancakes and bread.
“I make my own brown sugar by mixing a fourth of a cup of syrup to two cups of sugar,” Debbie says. “It makes cookies taste so much better.”
Other living history demonstrations at the Festival include cider pressing, chair caning, soap making, blacksmithing, quilting, wheat weaving, wood carving, bread baking, rope making, corn shelling and grinding, spinning and weaving, and saw mill operation.
Musical and history-related entertainment is offered throughout the activity-filled day that also features farm tractor games and power pull amidst a display of antique farm machinery and cars.
********
Chisholm Trail Day Information:
It’s time to saddle up and head to the 36th Annual Chisholm Trail Day Festival, on Saturday, October 4, 2013 at the Heritage Center Museum, 412 S. Campbell in Abilene, Kansas from 10 am to 4 pm. The admission is $7 per adults and children 12 and under is $2.
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