Sugar Cane

Well, we decided to attend the Ortona Sugar Cane Festival,  it is a demonstration of the sugar Cane Harvest and Processing, it was well worth attending. There was Bluegrass, clogging, food and crafts.

The sugar cane grown in fields and gets very tall, the outside leaves are brown and dry,  to remove this surplus they burn the sugar cane field and remove it so that it does not clog the machines that process it/

I am standing in front of a 1904 Golden Crusher they used to squeeze the liquid out of the sugar cane, when this liquid come out it is very reddish brown and sweet.

This site is an Indian Burial Site, there are mounds that were built where the ortona indians were buried but people dug up the sites, removed the pottery, jewlery and items of value before fences were installed and it was protected, Anna Mae and I are standing on a wooden walk way that goes over the top of a burial mound.

Anna Mae is standing at the base of a burial mound, directly behind her behind the trees and scrub brush there was a BlueGrass Band, Cloggers, and the served either Chicken or Pork Lunches which were delicious.    These are the sugar canes after they are burnt and cut, the white color is not ripe but the red color is ready and had liquid in it and tastes sweet.   All in all it was a great time, we were near the Caloosahatchee River in Ortona.   The place does not look like much but you drive back into near the river and you will see hugh Boats, Sail Boats, Scooners, Beautiful Houses and a Yacht Basin on the River, there is some Big, Big Bucks in this area hidden from view back in the woods.

Never forget our Veterans!!