I haven’t eaten fresh Sugarcane since a teenager in 1979. I bought a couple canes from our Asian Market. First, I have to remove the skin with a sharp knife then cut it about an inch thick for each piece then chill them on ice for about an hour then chew on the cane piece and suck out all the pure cane juices. Yum!!! .
Tony.
I used to chew them by the buckets back in India. The juicing stalls were pretty suspect though. You brought back some fond memories!
Tony,
I don’t think my poor teeth could chew sugar cane anymore. I love the taste and the aroma of fresh sugar cane juice.
We used to grow them, the yellow bark kind. To me, the red bark tastes better. The leaves were like blades. I got cut by them plenty of times and they caused skin itchiness, too.
They were a mini-fad in the 70’s here in the US, you could get them in the grocery store. My mom would get them and it would keep my brother and I busy for awhile…
Tony,
You have a way to bring back memories and responses!
I have not chew on a sugar cane since teenage years. Like Mamuang’s, I would rather buy an ice cold bag of the extracted juice with a wedge of kumquat to sip on whenever I traveled to Texas than risking couple thousand dollars for a dental repair deductible!
How was the chew? Was it crunchy but tenderly sweet as memory goes or tough fiber to fight to extract its sweet juice? I remember back home, sometimes we got some variety that’s exactly “crunchy but tenderly sweet” juice and sometimes we bought a bunch of hard, tough fiber to chew on. Those times, we wished we own the sugarcane machine to grind those cane for juice!
It was sweet and lovely memories though…
Tom
sugar cane grows so easily here in Florida that I had to give it a try…went to an old cracker homestead where they used to grow it. they were giving it away so I took a piece home.It can take a long time to mature and there really isn’t much you can do with such a small amount, but it was a cool experiment…
I remember street vendors back home with juicing sugarcane set up. You would find those operations almost everywhere, especially right next to cinema/theater complex. They’re always crowded with all sort of people, especially right after the end of a show on a hot summer night, lit up by couple tungsten light bulbs dangling above the machine.
I’ve never seen but heard of stories about those operators pushing the sugarcanes along with their hand into the feeder…
Oops! Wrong story!
Tom
Ah Sugarcane, there is a thought, it is widely grown commercially about 75 miles southeast of here.
for those who still want to try, simply avoid chewing at segments with the node region, as that part is the hardest, although the skull-jarring crunch seems to add to the in-the-raw experience for many people, myself included lol. The internodal segments are softer and easier to crunch on, and more juicy.
in vegas, most hispanic and asian grocery stores offer it. The drab green ones usually have higher brix than the tortoiseshell purple ones posted by Tony. The purple seems to have a milder flavor, aside from being more attractive an ornamental. The green ones actually grow here too, but die down during winter, and regrow from suckers
I remember when I was in high school growing up in Baton Rouge we would drive across the river and follow the cane trucks until some pieces fell out. We would take them home and chew away. Those were the days!
Bring back a lot of good memories. I have not had the fresh one for years, but local grocery store sale it frozen, cut into an inch or so pieces sold in a bag. Actually, chewing sugarcane is a good exercise for the jaw muscle, it makes the tooth stronger, and it cleans the tooth too by chewing on the fiber.
There’s huge clumps of yellow sugar cane left behind from the old plantations scattered all across the Hamakua coast. Found some on our property and have made juice a number of times. (With kumquat, yum!) The purple has a nice flavor, but the yellow is definitely sweeter. I guess that’s why it was chosen as the commercial variety!
One thing about the juice though is that it goes bad incredibly fast; it seems you just can’t keep it for 30 minutes without losing a ton of quality.
not many in current and future generations will experience that, which is kind of sad…
Raf,
Do you think sugar can handle Vegas heat? I kept a small top segment and try to root it. If it grows then I will over winter it in my basement and try to get it going again the following Spring.
Tony
it is the cold which turns the above ground parts into mush. Sugarcane revels in heat, and amazingly does well in low humidity. You could try rooting a few segments of your canes, did you get them firm and crisp?
Yep, they looked fresh and firm. The buds looked good also. Hopefully, they will root for me.
Tony
forgot to ask, are the buds/nodes firm and turgid(as those could get mushy when frozen)? If they are not mushy, it’s a good sign of viability
leaves are razor-sharp sabers, but exquisitely ornamental!
Yes, the nodes are not mushy. Some segment already got some old roots still hanging and I am not sure if they are viable.
Tony
nice, keep us posted!
