BARNESVILLE – Olney Friends School cultivates young minds, drawing lessons from the land and the traditions of its Belmont County campus.
In addition to studying academic subjects such as the humanities, mathematics and the sciences, pupils at Olney know what it’s like to grow the very food that sustains them. And while they may enjoy the black beans, potatoes and fresh eggs produced on the school’s farm, students sometimes have the opportunity to explore regional heritage by helping to make products such as home-grown sorghum molasses.
Sorghum is a type of grass, similar to sugar cane. The crop is grown for human and animal consumption, as well as for use as a biofuel. The grain it produces can be fed to livestock or ground to produce flour for making bread, cookies and more. But it is the liquid contained in the sorghum stalks makes a sweet treat for members of the Olney community.
Barnesville resident Fred Cooper, a 1966 graduate of Olney, helps his alma mater by providing a mill that staff and students use to press the cane they harvest from campus fields. Cooper’s portable mill, built in 1896, was designed to be powered by horses or mules.
But Alan Skinner, father of Olney Assistant Farm Manager Sandy Sterrett, painted and rebuilt the press after it had been exposed to the elements for decades. He also adapted the machine – salvaged from Columbiana County, Ohio – to be powered by a tractor and used on a modern farm.
Cooper said the age of the mill is telling, as sorghum was a popular sweetener in Belmont County and throughout the Midwest for much of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
“At one time, it was a staple food for people who couldn’t afford white sugar,” Cooper said.
After the cane is cut, leaves are stripped from the stalks. Workers feed the cane through the old mill, which uses cast iron rollers to squeeze the juice from the plant. That juice is then boiled over a wood fire, producing thick, sweet, dark syrup.
All-natural sorghum molasses is rich in potassium and protein, and it is popular as a topping for pancakes and biscuits and as an ingredient in many other traditional dishes. Students at Olney enjoy snacks of sorghum butter spread on fresh-baked bread, cookies sweetened with sorghum and many other dishes that use the ingredient.
