Syrup Making, An Age Old Art
Continued by One Wood County Family
by: Bobby McDonald
They're college professors, accountants, music teachers, wealth managers, and businessmen and women, but on the second Saturday of November, they all arrive back at the family farm, south of Yantis, and become syrup makers, following in the footsteps of their great-grandfather, John Andrew Jackson Jefferson Davis "Jeff" Cade. Jeff Cade was born in 1861, while his father was away fighting in the Civil War and he never saw him. His widowed mother moved to the Rock Hill Community in Wood County, Texas, from Alabama, following the Civil War and reared Jeff along with the other children she had from a second marriage.
Jeff Cade learned the art of syrup making, a staple on the table of every home in pioneer Texas, and "passed down" the art to his son, Lonnie Cade. Lonnie married Iva Gilbreath, a member of another pioneer family in northern Wood County, and they began farming on some land she inherited from her father, Andrew Gilbreath, and slowly began adding acres to the farm. Today, the farm still remains in the family and is approximately 93 acres, that serves as the "meeting place" for a host of family and friends. The family has restored the old mule barn, the dairy barn, and the house and share family gatherings in the autumn, on the fourth of July, and at other meeting times during the year. "It's always like coming home," expressed Lavinia and Elthie, daughters of Lonnie and Iva Cade. "We bring our children, our grandchildren, and now our great-grandchildren to the 'homeplace' just to share in family memories, learn about their 'roots,' and enjoy time spent together as a family!"
Byron Meads, left, grandson of Lonnie Cade, oversees the syrup making process.
Grandson, Timothy Meads, makes certain that fire is tended for
proper cooking temperatures.
"Certainly, I think Dad (Lonnie Cade) and granddad (Jeff Cade) would be happy that we're making syrup with their old cane mill, this blustery autumn day," states Lavinia. "They reared five children on this farm, farming, milking Grade-B and Grade-A milk, and instilling in us that the 'ticket' to being somebody was to get a good and solid education!"
Lavinia Cade Atchley, left, and Elthie Cade Meads, daughters of Lonnie and Iva Gilbreath Cade, make
the pilgrimage back to the family farm, south of Yantis, to share syrup making with their families.
"And, they taught us to work hard and tend to business!" inserted Elthie Cade Meads. "Both mother and dad were raised in large families and they knew the value of organization, so each of us had distinctive chores that we were responsible for on a daily basis."
"Mother and Dad's success in life was to make certain that all of us received a college education and knew the importance of work!" expressed both Lavinia and Elthie. "And, we've tried to pass those very same values on to our children and grandchildren!"
Great-grandson, Justin White, oversees the cane mill to extract the juices from the cane.
Meanwhile, out in the old mule barn was Jeff and Lonnie Cade's syrup making pans and utensils, and the syrup mill sat in the pasture, out past the smokehouse. The copper pan was made out of used copper that the Wood County Sheriff had confiscated in "busting up" stills, and Jeff Cade had acquired the copper and fashioned it into syrup pans. Grandchildren remembered coming to the Cade Farm as children and watching their granddad, Lonnie Cade, make syrup, every autumn, but really had no idea how to do it. "We were just small children, back in the 1960's and we'd watch it done, but had no idea what was required to make the syrup," recalls Byron Meads, his grandson. "That's when my brothers and I decided to learn about how it was made and to see if we could reactivate the mill and make syrup. That was about 5 years ago."
"We first went to the Henderson Syrup Festival, in Henderson, Texas, as observers," expressed Timothy Meads. "And, then after we 'hung around' and watched for a couple of years, they invited us to join in the making, and learn the trade!"
"Well, last year, we planted a cane crop, here on the farm, and began making syrup with all of our cousins, children, and grandchildren," continued Byron. "Everyone showed up and we made a huge 'crop' of syrup and started our own family tradition!"
This year's syrup making began on Saturday, November 13th, when Timothy and Byron began building the fires at 5:30 a.m. Soon, other family members began arriving to "juice" the ribbon cane and began pouring the liquid sugar into the pans. "We've always been good at 'raising cane' here on the farm!" quipped Cousin Stacy Atchley, a grandson and Geology Professor at Baylor University.
Stacy was "in charge" of keeping the "mule" going 'round and 'round the mill. "We've decided to use a mechanical mule, instead of Ol' John or Henry, that Grandpa use to use!" allowed Stacy. "But, it gets pretty monotonous to even keep the mechanical one going, I can only imagine what it was like to keep a real mule from 'balking' as he made the circle!"
"As a young child, ribbon cane syrup was a staple on our breakfast table," continues Elthie Cade Meads, as she supervises the biscuit making in her mother's kitchen. "The little silver colored aluminum pitcher was filled and ready to dispense servings of syrup to 'sop' with nice, hot biscuits for breakfast. The syrup followed a hearty breakfast of farm fresh eggs, ham, bacon, or sausage produced right here on the farm!"
"Daddy rarely grew his ribbon cane for syrup, here on this farm," inserted Lavinia Atchley. "He preferred the taste of the ribbon cane grown down in the bottom and said it made better syrup, so as kids our cane was grown in the bottom and we'd cut it and then bring it up to the mill, here on the homeplace. Daddy had an art for making good syrup and made all of our own and then made syrup for neighbors from miles around, when they brought loads of their cane to the mill! It was an every autumn occurrence here in Northeast Texas as we were growing-up!"
"And, grandma made plenty of these fluffy buttermilk biscuits!" expressed granddaughter Alethia White, as she brought another pan of piping hot biscuits from the oven. "She passed down the recipe that we still use today!"
Granddaughter, Alethia White, shares biscuit baking secrets with the next generation of the family,
in her grandmother's kitchen.
Elthie, left, and Lavinia stand by the Grade-A Milk Permit that is still proudly displayed in the
kitchen of the farm home.
Meanwhile back at the mill, great-grandsons were "stuffing" stalks of cane into the mill, as they were mashed and the juice extracted and gathered, with the turn of the mill, and someone was ready with a bucket to collect the juice and bring it to the pan. Others were using rakes to remove the hot coals from beneath the pan to keep the temperature of the syrup "just right," while others were splitting wood to be added to the fire.
Then, others were "skimming" the syrup of impurities as it cooked and moved along a series of copper "baffles" to be delivered to the syrup buckets for storage, once it had completed cooking.
"Granddaddy and a couple of men did what it takes an 'army' of us to complete," advised Byron Meads. "But, we're having fun doing it and we're teaching our children and grandchildren the art of syrup making, and that's what is important!"
"Granddad and his brother, Travis, whom he said was the best person he knew to judge when the syrup had cooked to completion, along with Delta Gilbreath, a cousin, and his uncle, Hance Gilbreath, and Ollie Simpkins, a black gentleman from Quitman, would complete the entire process out here at the mill," remembered Timothy Meads. "The five of them could daily make more syrup than it would take us a month to make!"
Meanwhile, great grandson, Justin White, was using Lonnie Cade's cane knife to get the cane ready for the mill and to be juiced, as he worked through a stack of ribbon cane, at the mill.
Grandsons, Stacy Atchley, left, and Brant Atchley, right, lend their hand in the syrup making process.
"It's a process that needs to be organized and to keep the fires going and the juice coming, so that the syrup won't scorch," advised Byron Meads, as he oversaw the entire cooking process. "It's all in the cooking and making certain that it cooks long enough, but not enough to burn!"
"Before today, we've grown and cut the cane, cut wood to be used beneath the pans, and hauled it all to the mill," continued Timothy Meads. "But, it's a time spent together, enjoying family and re-creating a tradition that our family has been engaged in for 150 years! It's seldom that you get to share things together with family, like this, anymore, and we consider it an honor to teach this to our children and grandchildren, here on the farm, where it was done, as a staple chore, for so, so many years!"
"Daddy received his Grade-A permit to produce milk, on August 11, 1953, a 'red-letter' date in the history of our family," expressed Elthie and Lavinia. "For over 36 year a milk truck came to first haul the milk in cans, and then to haul it in a 'bob-tailed' tanker to Sulphur Springs, from our Jersey and Jersey-X cows. Before that we sold Grade-B milk and cream, that we delivered to Yantis. Milk and the stable monthly milk check paid for college educations and the necessities of life, here on the farm, and all of us worked, helping dad with the dairy, while we were still at home!"
As hot biscuits served with ham and sausage were being passed around the syrup mill and fires, the smoke was rising, and the syrup was cooking, on Saturday, in Northern Wood County. It was a day of family, a day of memories, and a day of sharing, that few families experience anymore, all at an ancient syrup mill, that had a million stories to tell, if they could only be "extracted!" However, the Cade-Gilbreath Family continued to "pass along" many treasured memories, with each batch of syrup that went into the bucket, and those same stories will be passed along, when the sugary liquid is enjoyed on breakfast tables, all across Texas, as the syrup is taken home by family members! It's an East Texas tradition at it's finest!
Elthie Cade Meads shared her Buttermilk Biscuit recipe, passed down from her mother, Iva Gilbreath Cade:
Elthie's Buttermilk Biscuits
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 Tablespoons butter
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2/3 cup butter milk
Sift dry ingredients, add milk and butter. Mix until blended well. "Pat out" on a
floured board and cut. Do not roll with a rolling pin. Cook in 450 degree oven
for 10-12 minutes.
Serve with plenty of real butter and Ribbon Cane Syrup!!!
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Meanwhile, Lonnie and Iva Cade's granddaughter, Alethia White, has compiled a cookbook of the "Best Loved Recipes From the Cade-Gilbreath Family," to share with her family and anyone wanting some of those precious old recipes, that your grandmother and great-grandmother shared with their family. They can be purchased for $5.00 each, by contacting Alethia at (903)278-2888.
Lonnie and Iva Gilbreath Cade, still "over-see" the syrup making
"in spirit" as the family gathers to join in the tradition, on a cool autumn morn.
Editor's Note: I want to thank the Cade and Gilbreath Family for sharing their syrup making skills and family with me, as I watched and compiled this story. My father took his ribbon cane to the Cade Syrup Mill, when I was a child, back in the 1960's, to have syrup made, so it was a real "treat" for me to see the process and learn about what it required to make Ribbon Cane Syrup.
The Mule Barn is "empty" on the Cade-Gilbreath Farm, as mechanical methods are now used
to make the syrup, but a family tradition is still alive and well in Wood County, Texas.
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