Raymond Roland (Nashville, GA) |
||
| Raymond Roland
carries on his family's tradition of commercial
cane-syrup production. His product, "Roland's
Pride," is a blend of cane syrup and corn syrup and
is sold in various local outlets. As Mr. Baldree did,
Raymond noted that his customers prefer the somewhat less
strongly flavored blend, and, of course, blending with
fructose prevents granulation. It is my impression that
Raymond's operation is one of the three largest in the
South Georgia/North Florida area (with the other two
being Mr. Baldree's and whatever becomes of Linda Paulk's
"Puddin Creek" production near Willacoochee). Mr. Roland and several employees were in full-scale operation the day of my visit. Regardless, he graciously made time for me, and I appreciate his explanation of his operation. |
||
(click on image for larger view) |
||
 |
Here is a view of the wagons of cane ready for grinding. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
|
||
| The pictures above provide an overview of the grinding operation. Wagons of cane are pulled under a shed extending from the syrup house. A Golden # 36 is stationed at the edge of the shed, so that cane is fed directly from the wagon into the mill. The bagasse is moved by conveyor to a large truck and subsequently used as cow fodder. The mill is driven by a tractor pto. The drive train includes a school-bus transmission. Mr. Roland explained that having a reverse gear is helpful when the mill becomes clogged. | ||
|
||
| Above are views from under the shed. As is true for the production of this entire collection of photographs, only natural lighting was used and strong contrasts are inevitable with fast-speed film used for combinations of light and shadow. Sorry. Regardless, the slides provide some further detail. For example, Raymond uses a trio of modern belts to replace the traditional flat belt that was used to drive the mill pulley. | ||
 |
Here
is the backside of Mr. Roland's syrup house. Each of the
three chimneys serves a cast-iron kettle/furnace inside
the house. Note also the large fan used to remove steam
from the kettles. |
|
 |
|
|
| The above
pictures show the three kettles used to produce Roland's
Pride. Note the piped system used to deliver the juice
from the warming pan that sits on a section of the
furnace. Also, note how the kettle is mounted into the
furnace. The furnace itself has an inward-sloping
concrete edge that blends into the kettle flange,
providing a larger area for the removal of skimming. Raymond's burners are the simplest I've seen-he has a galvanized-pipe T with short nipples, each about 2-3 inches long. Each of the nipples has a single 1/8-inch hole drilled into it. |
||
