{ fresh from the farm }
Uncle Leo’s Sorghum:
Sweetenin’ Up the South BY JAY REED
I
n the world of sweeteners, words get thrown around a lot. Or perhaps I should be more polite and just say, when it comes to sweeteners, there is a lot of vocabulary to negotiate. Even when you eliminate the crystallized category—cane sugar, demerara, turbinado, powdered, dark and light brown—and focus on the pourable kinds, there are still a lot to keep up with. Some are brand names that are more or less their own version, like Blackburn’s or Lyle’s Golden. There are all kinds of varieties of honey.
14 • December 2021/January 2022
Maple stands like a towering…tree…above all the rest, for sure, if you hail from a northeastern state or married into one of those families (raising my hand). I’m not sure how you define pancake syrup, but however that shakes out, a family of names emerges here, too, like Hungry Jack and Mrs. Butterworth, who host a big family reunion at the Log Cabin. Then we get down to the basics. These are the syrups whose honor families defend at all costs because that’s what their
