From the writings of Museum of Appalachia founder John Rice Irwin:

Few activities in Appalachia were as quaint, colorful, festive, and necessary as molasses making. There were many steps in this process, and it required the help of all family members, men, women, and children. The grandparents and other kin, and often the neighbors, too, came to help.

The cane had to be stripped of its fodder, and it had to be fed into the slowly revolving iron rollers. All day long the mule went round-and-round while the juice trickled out, ever so slowly.

It had to be boiled and therein lay the secret to good molasses making. While it boiled, the green skim had to be skimmed off. The boiling had to be completely controlled one and an inexperienced person would ruin the results of a year’s labor. Molasses was not only used as a staple food throughout the year, but they were used as a sugar substitute, to make cakes, pies, cookies, etc.

*Pictured is Vernon Snodderly running the cane mill at a Museum of Appalachia Fall Homecoming. Also pictured is Ed Disney (1914-2008) of the Dutch Valley community in Anderson County, TN. Disney, who learned molasses making at the age of 8, continued practicing the trade for the next 82 years. A demonstrator at the Museum of Appalachia for 18 years, Disney is photographed at the 1999 Homecoming boiling molasses (photo by Frank Hoffman).