When you sit at your table to eat
pancakes, do you ever reach for delicious sweet
syrup to pour over them?
Many people do!
Have you ever thought about
how syrup makes it’s way to your table? In
this story, you will learn about the journey
of one Louisiana
product
called “Steen’s Syrup.” This
product
is
produced
in Abbeville, Louisiana is almost 100
years old.
Each batch starts with one
popular Louisiana
agriculture crop
called
sugar cane.
Children and adults in south
Louisiana know that when the sides of a
sugar cane
are peeled, the sweet juicy pulp is a treat to
chew on. One Louisiana couple took that taste a
step further by creating a pure cane syrup
product.
In 1910, Charley Sidney Steen,
Sr. and Elizabeth Bernard Steen founded the C.
S. Steen Syrup Mill.
The
purchase
of a small mill was made through a local
hardware store. At that time, this mule drawn
mill could
produce
a couple barrels of syrup a day.
Although some things have
changed, one thing hasn’t. Since the plantation
days,
sugar cane crops
are still planted the same way. It is hand laid
into the soil. The seed cane is covered and
allowed to grow. Fifteen months later. the
crop
will be
harvested.
In earlier years,
farmers
search for people to hand cut
and strip the sugarcane for
delivery
to the C. S. Steen Syrup Mill.
Now mechanical cutters
are used. Once the
crop
is
harvested,
it is taken to the
mill.
The average "Syrup Making Season"
runs from middle of October through
Christmas.
As the first of its kind in
the world, this cane cleaning
plant
took
sugar cane
and removed the leaves and dirt.
The leaves and dirt are burned and
the ashes are returned to the fields, while
the
sugar cane
would go to the
mill
to be
processed.
Today,
mechanized equipment
cut sugar cane, strips it of its leaves and
loads it on to
hydraulic dump carts
which
tractors or trucks
tow to the
mill.
While being
processed
at the C. S. Steen Syrup Mill, kettles of
pure
sugar cane
juice are evaporated into cane syrup and it
is cooked until it looks and tastes just
right.
Five generations later, the
mill still uses the original
recipe
and steam
equipment
continues to make “100% pure
cane syrup” over an open
kettle.
Once the syrup is
packaged,
the
producers
of this
product
then
ship
it to
stores
to be
sold.
It is then
bought
or
purchased
by
consumers
and brought home.
Next time you reach for syrup,
share the story of this
Louisiana product
with your family!
Discussion Questions
Name
1. What is the
name of the product in this story?
2. What crop is used to make this product?
3. Who
started the company?
4. Describe one thing the Steen's company does the
same now as long ago.
5. Describe one thing the Steen's company does
different now as long ago.
6. Do you think having this product in Louisiana is
a good thing? Why or why not?
7. Think About This Question: Hurricanes and storms
are a threat to southern Louisiana coastal parishes.
Do you think Hurricanes can affect the production of
this product? Explain your answer.
To see the process with photos, click here to see
the
PowerPoint. To print a
booklet in color click
here! For black and white
click here!
Download a story and question printable
here! (Click here for MS
Word version)
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