when I was in college at Texas Tech University, I worked a temp job, harvesting sorghum by hand! Yes! By hand! It was a seed company, Chromatin, that developed various strains of sorghum seeds. Each separate row of the crop field was a different strain of sorghum!! So we literally walked down the crop rows, with a knife, cutting each stalk by hand. Each row of crop was carefully grouped and tagged. And then we took it all back to the warehouse and threshed it all, by hand, and put the seeds into small pouches! All of the pouches are tagged and labeled and sent to the Crop Biology Genetics guys for analysis. And they mix it all together and experiment on making new resistant strains od sorghum! Was one of the most fascinating “hard labor” jobs I ever had as a college kid.
In Southern African countries it's a staple, we make bread from it, we make beer from it, we make coarse and fine meal for porridge. We call it Mabele in setswana.
I tasted it for the first time in Kanye, Botswana. I loved porridge made from it! I never could get the sour porridge right, though. I so miss mabele meal freshly stamped!
@@dorothy7743The Sour taste comes from fermentation, you need to mix the sorghum with water and let it sit for a few days, it will get stinky but will taste wonderful when cooked.
@@Fancy_By_Nature--It sounds like pancakes would taste like sourdough. I don't like Buckwheat pancakes(too dry), because I like to try (almost) everything. That's why I've tasted sorghum(like molasses) and Rice(like Karo white) syrup.
Growing up in Texas, my dad would take me out early Saturday morning by the railroad tracks in Corpus Christi, and we would scoop up sorghum from along the tracks for the birds. Evertime the trains stopped they would leave a pile, so it was like sand dunes in some places, and once we spread it out on the driveway we would have waves of starlings just darken the sky when the feast began. For a little kid it was awesome.
Down in Missouri city Texas Southwest of Houston Texas they grew sorghum for years out there before the subdivisions came and ruined everything down around highway 🛣️ 59 south by the Brazos river turnaround!!!! Are you familiar with that location????
As mentioned in this clip, Sorghum is one of the major food grains in Africa, there's also Millet and inEthiopia a grain called Teff, all three very hardy and need little water. In Uganda during my childhood, we had Sorghum meals and porridge, very tasty and nutricious food.🌿🌾🌱
Teff has such tiny seeds that one can easily carry enough to plant quite a lot of land. Historically it’s been grown by people who typically moved to different places during the year and returned to harvest it.
All the grains you mentioned are superior nutrition wise to corn and wheat. As an American whose family can’t eat wheat, I cook with all the grains you mention but sadly they still aren’t commonly found here. If you want to eat these, you definitely have to cook all your food, which is okay for me as I have always been a cook. I will have to look up some African recipes since these are the standard grains in the food. ❤❤
My mother discovered millet back in the 70s. She cooked it with milk and sugar and we all loved it. I’ve tried it now but it’s just not the same as cooked by my mommy. She was ahead of her time in a lot of things.
Glad to see Maryland farmers still thriving! When I was living there, (left about 25yrs ago) Was so sad to see farm after farm taken over By development, or maybe rural blight? So important to support American Farmers For Independence and the FUTURE!!! Especially Environmentally Balanced!
India, I presume??? If so, I just bought a bunch of sorghum and maybe I can ask my dentist for a good recipe, cuz she is from India and I have no idea what I will use the sorghum for.
My eastern Kentucky family dined on molasses made from sorghum and I can honestly say I have never heard this crop ever mentioned besides this fact. Interesting video! Thanks.
I only paid attention to sorghum after my father-in-law brought me a bottle of "Mei-chiu" (?) a sorghum 'whisky' from desert (Northwest?) China. Stuff'll knock your head back!
I'm from Georgia. I grew up in Alabama. I've heard of sorghum syrup all my life. I live in a farming area and I've seen fields of sorghum growing. Still, I could never tell the stuff from Corn until it matures and I wasn't sure what all it was used for until watching this very informative video. Thanks. Incidentally, syrup was always a very popular food in the south in times past. Some still have an old cane mill. Most of our syrup comes from cane or corn but sorghum was also sometimes used. All during the Great Depression, about all some people (black and white alike) had to eat were biscuits and syrup according to my white parents and several black friends whose parents lived through the hard times.
@@blumobeanI had sorghum syrup fairly often growing up in the center of Illinois. I think that the nearby Amish (in the area of Arthur and Arcola) produced much of it. It just tastes… different. Different from cane syrup and maple syrup and honey and pretty much everything else. You either like the offbeat taste or you don’t, and I didn’t like it: bearable but just wrong, not worth buying again once you’ve satisfied any curiosity you’ve had about it. It’s made from the unripe stems rather than the seeds. Different varieties for syrup and seeds and broomcorn, I think. The Amish definitely grew sorghum broomcorn and made homegrown brooms!
Growing up we always had a can of sorghum syrup on the table. So did my grandparents. We ate it on biscuits with butter. Put a big spoonful of syrup in your plate, add a good-sized spoon of butter, stir it all together with your fork, and put it on your biscuit. We always enjoyed it.
There used to be a sorghum festival in my hometown in eastern Ky when I was a kid. They’d have huge vats boiling syrup. Everyone would take a piece of stalk, dip it in the syrup, and chew on it. Sorghum molasses whipped with homemade butter on made-from scratch-biscuits is amazing!
On my way to UP in West Memphis I would pass a sorghum field. One morning the farmer was present. Parked my bobtail and asked if I could have 2 heads . . . Why, he inquired. Got a neighbor with budgies. He gave me 5 and politely told me to help myself next harvest. This continued another 5 years. Hope that farmer knows I became the favorite interloper to them parakeets 💕
I still see sorghum grown in Central Indiana. I have loved sorghum syrup/molasses since I was a kid, it was one of my parents favorite things to have with biscuits and I still love it!
Sorghum is the most important crops in Amharan regions of Ethiopia. Sorghum first - fruit/unripe we cooked on fire it is so sweet and when it ripen boiled with water very delicious. Sorghum floors is good for bread and Ethiopian beverage (tella)
In the language of Hausa from Nigeria, its called dawa. It's a great staple and higher in potein than the soft wheat that most people eat. It's also gluten free and requires less water when being grown.
I've hunted over a large part of the U.S. and farmers in Maryland were the only ones to give me permission to hunt their land without wanting to charge me a lease fee. Maryland has very short hunting seasons and doesn't allow hunting on Sundays. So, crop depredation by game animals and birds is high, even though Maryland isn't known for it's numbers of game animals and birds. Lots of farmers welcome hunters to reduce the animal population and save their crops. I've hunted pheasant, dove, quail, ducks, geese and deer and never paid for access to their properties. I was just courteous when I asked and if told no, thanked them for their time and didn't cop an attitude. But, when they said yes, I made sure to shut gates when I was supposed to, I picked up my shell casings and any other trash I saw. I made sure to stay on the existing roads or trails when driving and didn't tear up the ground by driving in muddy conditions. In other words, I was respectful and was allowed to return numerous times. I wasn't ask by the farmers, but on most occasions I offered them some of the game I got. I found out that farmer's wives LOVE pheasants and venison!
I'm not a hunter, but I am an avid fisherman, and I wish we could get our fellow fishermen to clean up after themselves and not leave a mess behind......😖
My chickens love it! Just dry, as it is. And, me too! Soak it in water for a few hours, boil it 25 minutes and let it in the hot water for another 10 minutes. I use it instead of rice. Really good staple food you can easily grow yourself
Sorghum can be popped like popcorn. I've had it with just a little salt sprinkled on popped Sorghum and it was delightful. I think the temperature needs to be lower than popcorn to not burn the Sorghum.
As someone from the western part of India this is interesting. We use it to make rotis or flat bread traditionally and it is considered very nutritious. Infact in my region wheat is a recent introduction and traditionally sorghum and a couple of other grains are used to make rotis.
Growing up in North Louisiana In the 1960’s my grandfather and I raised sorghum a couple of years. We’d harvest the tops to make syrup and sorghum rum. We had about twenty fourty pound pigs we’d graze on what was left. I guess it was a little less than twenty acres. The pigs grew plenty fast and the syrup was good on grandmas biscuits and the rum had a Good kick !
I was born in zambia and brought up with sorghum. The beers nice and soupy. Like a food. Later in cape town we had a breakfast porridge called maltabella. That's how I grew up big and strong
First saw a crop of sorghum when I was driving through Utah. Took me a minute or two to realize what I was looking at. For my part, I've only ever known it for animal feed. Nice to see that it has interesting other uses as well. (As do most crops, when you step back from the primary usage and look at what really clever people have figured out what to do with it.)
Many years ago I was at a state fair. There was a man selling brooms that he made himself. I sort of half heard a conversation he was having with some people. Many years ago , he met an old man whose family had been share croppers. The family would walk in a circle through out the country following the harvest🧠. They would begin in Oregon, where they would harvest hops. And they would wind up in Oklahoma, where they would harvest sorghum. I believe that his brooms were sorghum. I regret that I did not include myself in that conversation. That oral history is fascinating.
You were included enough. Nobody else here talked about the old man whose family of sharecroppers walked in a circle throughout the country following the harvest. Maybe we don't know who they were, but we know they began in Oregon, where they would harvest crops, then end up in Oklahoma harvesting sorghum. For that matter, nobody else here said anything about the brooms made by the man at the state fair, the brooms you believe were sorghum. The details about the sharecropper family are known somewhere. Those stories have been passed along through the family and through friends, but if not for you, we would not have known about that family at all.
@@elizabetholiviaclark Interesting story. We are included as well 😂 because I will share this story of a man who heard a story from a man at the state fair who sold sorghum blooms who told a story of an old man whose family were share croppers who followed the harvest from Oregon to Oklahoma to harvest sorghum. Wow. If only our history books could tell us stories like these of regular folk life instead of presidents, kings, wars, et al.
As Africans we abandoned these kind of crops that are well designed to grow & strive in our environments requiring less water, and instead we chase crops like wheat & corn that require more water and are not suitable to grow in many parts of our lands
I can get ground crickets in Canada too it's an energy effient protein that humans can eat but just don't usually think of crickets first it's not that popular I don't think yet
Yes sorghum is my favorite food. In Somalia, we boil it with water and add maize. It's good, but you need to remove the eye to eat it like that. Among its properties it is good heart burn and stomach ulcers(when your inner stomach linings is badly scratched). For that you eat it with the eye. Also it's good if you are having hard times to shit. This is a really superfood.
as a Texan, who is not terribly familiar with East Coast American accents, other than like, the “famous” NY accent or New England accent or southern Georgia accent, I was very very surprised, and intrigued to hear this Maryland farmer speak with what I thought to be a “southern accent” in the way that I, a Texan, imagine it to be. Fascinating! But then the other guy, Gary Dell, had the sort of east coast accent I have heard before. Hmmm so interesting a father and son with two different accents. Well anyway, I love to learn about all of the English accents and dialects no matter where they are from. Maryland, Scotland, South Africa, Texas, Canada, all of it!
I am a Floridian that happened upon your channel. I like farming videos and you popped up in my feed. Very good video. I had heard of Sorghum but did not have an idea what it was used for. Thanks. The funny thing is, I actually do business in Maryland and Virginia and may have passed by these fields.
I had no idea what sorghum was either until Farming Simulator 22. Luckily, we can take it to a grain mill and make flour out of it. It was one of the new crops for 2022. In the video game, when you harvest it, it’s a really high yield harvest, I think the highest for the grain category.
ב''ה, it also naturally tastes a bit like a snickerdoodle cookie. The nutrition is pretty good, and fairly high sugar content like sweet corn. The amino profile is a bit distinct and complementary to more common grains.
I live in central Missouri and it is grown here. Soybeans rotated with corn are king but I do see it from time to tome. It is used here for feed and also making molasses. I used to buy it from the Amish and it was very good.
The smaller the grain the healthier, the fewer calories, and the more drought tolerant it tends to be. In the USA we've generally gone for "most calories" and "shelf stable", so our crops tend to suck in other categories. Strange how we feed our more nutritious grains, such as Sorghum to wild animals, eh?
this really interests me....our Big Farma has altered our wheat and corn to make it less nutritious and maybe sorghum is the answer to better healthier eating...I am going to plant a few seeds next year, in for nothing else to use as bird feed..
"More nutritious" is debatable. Because Sorghum tends to grow in poorer soil (and evolved to survive in such soil),, it doesn't uptake a variety of micronutrients as well as wheat does. It's also lower in fiber, and the protein in sorghum is less bioavailable than the protein in wheat. The lack of gluten also makes it less suitable for some purposes, gluten is seen by some as a villain nowadays but it actually does useful things in terms of chemistry when making breads and such. That doesn't mean sorghum doesn't have value, but there isn't necessarily some weird conspiracy as to why it isn't always preferred over wheat.
About 40 years ago central Texas grew many acres of "milo". This almost completely stopped and switch to corn. The benefits were corn could stand much longer and not fall over making combining much easier. An insect called midge became an issue with the germ or to meat inside the outer husk was eaten. Seed breeders created a smaller seed the made old style gravity flow obsolete. The rotating planter plate would grind the seed before it would drop into drop shoot. I would estimate at least a 90% drop in acreage due these many issues.
Here in Nebraska our milo acres have dramatically dropped because corn genetics have improved so much. We used to have 1/2 our “dry land” acres in milo, 1/2 corn. It was a form of “drought insurance”. My dad always said “you will never get rich growing milo, but you will also never go broke!” Now they have bred corn to the point that it can survive a drought as well as milo, negating the whole reason to grow it! Milo is MUCH more difficult to hybridize and with such a smaller market little profit in doing so. Unfortunately with the drop in milo acres, pheasant and quail habitat has been greatly reduced which sucks for upland game hunters.
Farmers setting aside the growing of Milo in favor of growing corn might also have something to do with aubsidies paid to corn farmers by the government.
I saw sorghum growing 60 years ago in southern MO. I remember a wonderful time as a "city boy" visiting family friends grandparents there as a 7 seven year old. That one wee made such an impression on me.
I thought I had some mutant corn growing from a bird that dropped some seed. Apparently it was sorghum! Wow! We let it grow to watch and were a little disturbed. Now we know it was sorghum!!! Mystery solved!! Thank you!
ב''ה, already said this once in these comments, but when ground into flour the common food form tastes like a snickerdoodle cookie, as probably benefits from some in the recipe.
Sorghum grown in Southeast Colorado is primarily used as animal feed, it can be ground or cracked then used similar to corn for cattle, sheep, goats, horses, and pigs. If ground fine enough one can separate out a coarse flour, as a youth my grandmother used this flour mixed with some wheat flour for cooking, one of my favorites was as a muffin...warm from the oven, fresh butter melting in with honey, jelly or jam spread over the top, but they were great just as muffins. Sorghum is known for growing using less water than corn on our dryland acres and under long periods of dry growing with annual rainfall in the 13 inches per year range, thus gains of organic matter is highly dependent on annual rainfall. Chemical choices to combat weeds are very limited due to rainfall and being a lesser grain crop after corn and wheat for income potential. Once anyone has harvested sorghum you learn the "dust" is very itchy compared to corn or wheat too.
当我们带着我们的军队和俄罗斯的朋友一起到达你们这个贫穷的国家时，我们会给你们带来一些。 оварищ, вы тоже любите водку? Мы принесем водку, а наши китайские друзья принесут вам пиво. @@justayoutuber1906
On the Eastern Shore of Maryland, they were Harvesting Wheat, this was followed by Corn, Millet Seed/Sorghum, Soybeans or Clover. Then for a Fall Crop, Cabbage , Broccoli, or Brussel Sprouts. Then back to wheat. Three Crops a year.
So awesome, I live in the Pacific NW and feed the birds in the Winter, this Summer we had these new plants sprouting on oue property that looked like the begining of corn plants then changed to what looked like millet, but not. I figured whatever they were, they were hardy, beautiful, came from the bird seed and were still feeding this years birds, a win win situation... TY for this great video... awesome!!!
Thanks for the information. I grew up in Indiana and all I really pieced together about the crop was that it was grown in fields sometimes that had poor soil and no irrigation. From what I understand, the price it commands is not that great compared to corn or soybeans but it seems to have its uses in places with less rainfall and poorer soil quality.
I was'nt sure what a farmer had planted near me. This is what it was. Sorghum. I used to work on a farm as a teen. But i never saw this. I live in central NY.
Here in Delaware, I have seen quite an increase in sorghum this year. Last year there was one field. This year I have seen at least 7 and I come across more every time I have to go to a different place around here.
Sorghum is a staple in northern Somalia. We grind it down to make a fermented batter for pancakes called Lahoh which is eaten daily. It is also eaten whole with yogurt, butter and honey or with a spicy meat stew if you want it savoury. I believe most of the Sorghum we eat comes from the USA as it says it is a product of Kansas, USA on the large sacks.
I watched as a five yoar old, growing up in central Alabama, a mule walking in circles around a rolling stone sorghum press and watched the fluid being squeezed out into a large metal tank set in rock, over a roaring fire ... and being boiled down to molasses. Grandaddy fed cattle .. livestock, and US, delicious sorghum syrup with oven fired, baked homemade biscuits. ummm ... GOOD!
When my dad was helping on the farms growing up in the 1960s in Northern MN, they would plant corn and sorghum next to each other and run the chopper through it for silage.
I have recently Started adding it to every soup ..and stew .. it has a lovely Crunch .. and taste .. and does not get Mushy even after cooked for 2 hrs in pressure cooker recipe .. very healthy ..
Helped harvest sorghum in South Africa 🇿🇦 in the 1960s and 1970s, one by one, by hand, with tinny little BEST pocket knives. Combine harvesters for this crop didn't exist then in this country, and we did our bit as we were visitors from a thousand miles away.
I have roof deck planters at my house near San Francisco. I grow carrots, squash, and Yukon gold potatoes in several planters. To my surprise, I thought corn was growing in one of them. Holy smokes, its sorghum! What a surprise! I intend to make sorghum popcorn with it.
In Greater China, one of the uses for sorghum is to make hard liquor. On the island Kinmen which is administrator by Taiwan, sorghum liquor is one of their top exports.
"...unlike corn certain varieties can even be made into sorghum molasses." It's possible to extract a sugar syrup similar to cane syrup or sorghum syrup from corn stalks as well, just (apparently) not commercially viable to do so. I made a jarfull at home this year from post-harvest sweet corn stalks from my garden. I also make small amounts of home made sorghum molasses.
Very informative, nicely done. I'll be looking for a similar video on another big crop in Maryland: turf or sod. I'm wondering how the topsoil harvested with the grass gets restored.
Every year the little town in Oklahoma that my dad grew up in would have what's called "Sorghum Day" in the Fall. It's essentially like a mini fair where the food is centered around Sorghum. As a kid, I wasn't a fan of the taste of Sorghum syrup, but it grew on me as I got older. Even though it's about an hour's drive away, I try to attend every year to restock on some fresh and local Sorghum syrup. Tastes similar to Molasses, but the flavor has a lot more "depth" if that makes sense. Almost like how a sharp cheddar cheese is compared to a mild cheddar.
My Father was born in Kansas in 1923. He said when he was a boy they developed Combinable Sorghum as a new crop. Before then, there was only the 8-10 foot varieties which had to be hand harvested. This changed everything. That would have been around 1930.
Growing up in East Texas it was important to befriend the farmers... we loved the sorghum fields just after harvest... The doves loved the sorghum and it made for some fantastic wing shooting as the doves came to fed. First day of dove hunting season was a school holiday.
I clicked on the video because there is a stalk that grew in my backyard from birdseed and didn't know what it was. I'm going to leave it alone and see if either the birds take it or if it will seed itself. Nice to have a little bit of a 'farm' in my backyard. lol
neat i have maybe 20 plants of this growing around a compost pile in our backyard. Had no idea what it was. Guess I'll spread a few seeds around next year.
I had some sorghum volunteer near my house. It was probably dropped by an overfed bird or animal that had been to a local bird feeder. I let it ripen. It was delicious as a boiled breakfast cereal.
I am a farmer in Arkansas and grow it occasionally when prices are up but not often as we focus on cotton,soybeans,corn,rice and wheat.Used alot in birdseed as a filler 4 weight as not many songbirds will touch it.A dove is about the only good bird 2 eat it.
Sorghum molasses. I remember as a young girl my mom took me to a farm where they grew, harvested, and used a millstone pulled in a circle by a horse. Then I remember it being boiled. Lost art in Appalachia.
when I was in college at Texas Tech University, I worked a temp job, harvesting sorghum by hand! Yes! By hand! It was a seed company, Chromatin, that developed various strains of sorghum seeds. Each separate row of the crop field was a different strain of sorghum!! So we literally walked down the crop rows, with a knife, cutting each stalk by hand. Each row of crop was carefully grouped and tagged. And then we took it all back to the warehouse and threshed it all, by hand, and put the seeds into small pouches! All of the pouches are tagged and labeled and sent to the Crop Biology Genetics guys for analysis. And they mix it all together and experiment on making new resistant strains od sorghum! Was one of the most fascinating “hard labor” jobs I ever had as a college kid.
Thanks for sharing
What do you do now?
real work ! ya don't see it enough nowadays
That is interesting!
It is sweet and tasty. Good with lots of dishes. Even works with baked beans. Pour it over warm cornbread, fresh out of the oven.
In Southern African countries it's a staple, we make bread from it, we make beer from it, we make coarse and fine meal for porridge. We call it Mabele in setswana.
I tasted it for the first time in Kanye, Botswana. I loved porridge made from it! I never could get the sour porridge right, though. I so miss mabele meal freshly stamped!
@@dorothy7743The Sour taste comes from fermentation, you need to mix the sorghum with water and let it sit for a few days, it will get stinky but will taste wonderful when cooked.
Does Sorghum beer taste noticeably different from wheat/barley beers? I'm curious to try it!
@GnomaPhobic for me it's a nice sourly taste, i enjoy it if I haven't had it in ages,
@@Fancy_By_Nature--It sounds like pancakes would taste like sourdough.
I don't like Buckwheat pancakes(too dry), because I like to try (almost) everything. That's why I've tasted sorghum(like molasses) and Rice(like Karo white) syrup.
Growing up in Texas, my dad would take me out early Saturday morning by the railroad tracks in Corpus Christi, and we would scoop up sorghum from along the tracks for the birds. Evertime the trains stopped they would leave a pile, so it was like sand dunes in some places, and once we spread it out on the driveway we would have waves of starlings just darken the sky when the feast began. For a little kid it was awesome.
That's so Kool. I'm from robstown. I'll walk the side of the tracks now to keep some for chickens an other birds
Lot of bird shit, on everything.
Down in Missouri city Texas Southwest of Houston Texas they grew sorghum for years out there before the subdivisions came and ruined everything down around highway 🛣️ 59 south by the Brazos river turnaround!!!! Are you familiar with that location????
Thanks for sharing that memory. Nicely done.
Salute to all the farmers of the world🫡 I hope this reaches you and those you love in great health and happiness❤️🙏 Thank you again❤️
As mentioned in this clip, Sorghum is one of the major food grains in Africa, there's also Millet and inEthiopia a grain called Teff, all three very hardy and need little water. In Uganda during my childhood, we had Sorghum meals and porridge, very tasty and nutricious food.🌿🌾🌱
Teff has such tiny seeds that one can easily carry enough to plant quite a lot of land. Historically it’s been grown by people who typically moved to different places during the year and returned to harvest it.
All the grains you mentioned are superior nutrition wise to corn and wheat. As an American whose family can’t eat wheat, I cook with all the grains you mention but sadly they still aren’t commonly found here. If you want to eat these, you definitely have to cook all your food, which is okay for me as I have always been a cook. I will have to look up some African recipes since these are the standard grains in the food. ❤❤
@ashdav9980 for the millet you can find in the Senegalese Malian or guinean food store in the East coast. The sorghum also sometimes
The minor grains you mentioned don't receive much funding for research. Same with cassava root, a.k.a. manioc.
My mother discovered millet back in the 70s. She cooked it with milk and sugar and we all loved it. I’ve tried it now but it’s just not the same as cooked by my mommy. She was ahead of her time in a lot of things.
As a Maryland resident I always wondered about this crop. This was a very interesting video. Our farmers sure know their profession.
Glad to see Maryland farmers still thriving!
When I was living there, (left about 25yrs ago)
Was so sad to see farm after farm taken over
By development, or maybe rural blight?
So important to support American Farmers
For Independence and the FUTURE!!!
Especially Environmentally Balanced!
We have been Eating Sorghum for centuries.... It's our staple food. We call it Jowar. We make Jowar Flour and then make rotis out of it.
India, I presume??? If so, I just bought a bunch of sorghum and maybe I can ask my dentist for a good recipe, cuz she is from India and I have no idea what I will use the sorghum for.
Are you from east Africa
@suzz1776 you can cook the small grains the same as popcorn, it makes baby popcorn that tastes great
I've ground it for flour.Delicious pancakes and bread
How long it's takes from sowing to harvest.
Maryland Farm & Harvest actually sounded like a classic news clip. Well done!
My eastern Kentucky family dined on molasses made from sorghum and I can honestly say I have never heard this crop ever mentioned besides this fact. Interesting video! Thanks.
I only paid attention to sorghum after my father-in-law brought me a bottle of "Mei-chiu" (?) a sorghum 'whisky' from desert (Northwest?) China. Stuff'll knock your head back!
@@gyrene_asea4133 Sounds like something I would've liked back in the day!!! Tasty too I bet!
@@mikesnyder1788 I'll stay w/ Glenfiddich French Oak Reserve, thanks. :D
@@gyrene_asea4133 Oh yeah sounds so very good!!!
Same here from Indiana. Grandma always had sorghum molasses
sorghum is so easy to grow, i actually grew some by mistake and it spread across my yard along the fence.
ב''ה, does it make a natural birdfeeder for the migrating flocks?
I'm from Georgia. I grew up in Alabama. I've heard of sorghum syrup all my life. I live in a farming area and I've seen fields of sorghum growing. Still, I could never tell the stuff from Corn until it matures and I wasn't sure what all it was used for until watching this very informative video. Thanks. Incidentally, syrup was always a very popular food in the south in times past. Some still have an old cane mill. Most of our syrup comes from cane or corn but sorghum was also sometimes used. All during the Great Depression, about all some people (black and white alike) had to eat were biscuits and syrup according to my white parents and several black friends whose parents lived through the hard times.
Brother, Sorgam molasses is nowhere as good as cane syrup.
@@blumobean I agree with you completely.
@@blumobeanI had sorghum syrup fairly often growing up in the center of Illinois. I think that the nearby Amish (in the area of Arthur and Arcola) produced much of it. It just tastes… different. Different from cane syrup and maple syrup and honey and pretty much everything else. You either like the offbeat taste or you don’t, and I didn’t like it: bearable but just wrong, not worth buying again once you’ve satisfied any curiosity you’ve had about it.
It’s made from the unripe stems rather than the seeds. Different varieties for syrup and seeds and broomcorn, I think. The Amish definitely grew sorghum broomcorn and made homegrown brooms!
Yup a main staple for people everywhere!
Growing up we always had a can of sorghum syrup on the table. So did my grandparents. We ate it on biscuits with butter. Put a big spoonful of syrup in your plate, add a good-sized spoon of butter, stir it all together with your fork, and put it on your biscuit. We always enjoyed it.
There used to be a sorghum festival in my hometown in eastern Ky when I was a kid. They’d have huge vats boiling syrup. Everyone would take a piece of stalk, dip it in the syrup, and chew on it. Sorghum molasses whipped with homemade butter on made-from scratch-biscuits is amazing!
On my way to UP in West Memphis I would pass a sorghum field. One morning the farmer was present. Parked my bobtail and asked if I could have 2 heads . . . Why, he inquired.
Got a neighbor with budgies.
He gave me 5 and politely told me to help myself next harvest.
This continued another 5 years.
Hope that farmer knows I became the favorite interloper to them parakeets 💕
I still see sorghum grown in Central Indiana. I have loved sorghum syrup/molasses since I was a kid, it was one of my parents favorite things to have with biscuits and I still love it!
Got it in Northern Indiana too. Jasper County.
Sorghum is the most important crops in Amharan regions of Ethiopia. Sorghum first - fruit/unripe we cooked on fire it is so sweet and when it ripen boiled with water very delicious. Sorghum floors is good for bread and Ethiopian beverage (tella)
In the language of Hausa from Nigeria, its called dawa. It's a great staple and higher in potein than the soft wheat that most people eat. It's also gluten free and requires less water when being grown.
I've hunted over a large part of the U.S. and farmers in Maryland were the only ones to give me permission to hunt their land without wanting to charge me a lease fee. Maryland has very short hunting seasons and doesn't allow hunting on Sundays. So, crop depredation by game animals and birds is high, even though Maryland isn't known for it's numbers of game animals and birds. Lots of farmers welcome hunters to reduce the animal population and save their crops. I've hunted pheasant, dove, quail, ducks, geese and deer and never paid for access to their properties. I was just courteous when I asked and if told no, thanked them for their time and didn't cop an attitude. But, when they said yes, I made sure to shut gates when I was supposed to, I picked up my shell casings and any other trash I saw. I made sure to stay on the existing roads or trails when driving and didn't tear up the ground by driving in muddy conditions. In other words, I was respectful and was allowed to return numerous times. I wasn't ask by the farmers, but on most occasions I offered them some of the game I got. I found out that farmer's wives LOVE pheasants and venison!
My mom left me a great recipe for deer jerky. Just sayin’😊
@@mominthe209 I LOVE VENISON! COULD YOU POST THE JERKY RECIPE? I WOULD LOVE TO TRY TO MAKE IT THE NEXT TIME I GET SOME VENISON.
I'm not a hunter, but I am an avid fisherman, and I wish we could get our fellow fishermen to clean up after themselves and not leave a mess behind......😖
My chickens love it! Just dry, as it is. And, me too! Soak it in water for a few hours, boil it 25 minutes and let it in the hot water for another 10 minutes. I use it instead of rice. Really good staple food you can easily grow yourself
Sorghum can be popped like popcorn. I've had it with just a little salt sprinkled on popped Sorghum and it was delightful. I think the temperature needs to be lower than popcorn to not burn the Sorghum.
@@CricketsBay yeah, tried that but no matter what I do not even half the sorghum seems to pop...
As someone from the western part of India this is interesting. We use it to make rotis or flat bread traditionally and it is considered very nutritious. Infact in my region wheat is a recent introduction and traditionally sorghum and a couple of other grains are used to make rotis.
i'll have to try that! i left rice and lentils soaking for dosa yesterday, it will be my first time making them
Thank you for tell us all on UA-cam Mrs. Maryland farm girl.
I had them in my garden, because they look nice. And are also fantastic in dried flower bouquets.
Growing up in North Louisiana In the 1960’s my grandfather and I raised sorghum a couple of years. We’d harvest the tops to make syrup and sorghum rum. We had about twenty fourty pound pigs we’d graze on what was left. I guess it was a little less than twenty acres. The pigs grew plenty fast and the syrup was good on grandmas biscuits and the rum had a Good kick !
I was born in zambia and brought up with sorghum. The beers nice and soupy. Like a food.
Later in cape town we had a breakfast porridge called maltabella.
That's how I grew up big and strong
Do you use the red one for brewing beer?
First saw a crop of sorghum when I was driving through Utah. Took me a minute or two to realize what I was looking at. For my part, I've only ever known it for animal feed. Nice to see that it has interesting other uses as well. (As do most crops, when you step back from the primary usage and look at what really clever people have figured out what to do with it.)
Amen
Many years ago I was at a state fair. There was a man selling brooms that he made himself. I sort of half heard a conversation he was having with some people.
Many years ago , he met an old man whose family had been share croppers. The family would walk in a circle through out the country following the harvest🧠. They would begin in Oregon, where they would harvest hops. And they would wind up in Oklahoma, where they would harvest sorghum. I believe that his brooms were sorghum. I regret that I did not include myself in that conversation. That oral history is fascinating.
You were included enough. Nobody else here talked about the old man whose family of sharecroppers walked in a circle throughout the country following the harvest. Maybe we don't know who they were, but we know they began in Oregon, where they would harvest crops, then end up in Oklahoma harvesting sorghum. For that matter, nobody else here said anything about the brooms made by the man at the state fair, the brooms you believe were sorghum. The details about the sharecropper family are known somewhere. Those stories have been passed along through the family and through friends, but if not for you, we would not have known about that family at all.
@@elizabetholiviaclark
Interesting story. We are included as well 😂 because I will share this story of a man who heard a story from a man at the state fair who sold sorghum blooms who told a story of an old man whose family were share croppers who followed the harvest from Oregon to Oklahoma to harvest sorghum. Wow. If only our history books could tell us stories like these of regular folk life instead of presidents, kings, wars, et al.
Broom corn
As Africans we abandoned these kind of crops that are well designed to grow & strive in our environments requiring less water, and instead we chase crops like wheat & corn that require more water and are not suitable to grow in many parts of our lands
😂 lol
Me and my husband from Pakistan have been studying this too
I can get ground crickets in Canada too it's an energy effient protein that humans can eat but just don't usually think of crickets first it's not that popular I don't think yet
Pressured by governments to grow what they want
You had some external forces influencing your decisions, let's just say.
Man, a Colorful sorghum farmland is very awesome
Interesting program - thanks.
I'm such a geek, I LOVE video's like this ever since I was a kid watching "educational" films in grade school!!
Yes sorghum is my favorite food. In Somalia, we boil it with water and add maize. It's good, but you need to remove the eye to eat it like that. Among its properties it is good heart burn and stomach ulcers(when your inner stomach linings is badly scratched). For that you eat it with the eye. Also it's good if you are having hard times to shit. This is a really superfood.
This answered several questions I didn't even know I had. Thanks!
When I was a kid, in Missouri, sorghum molasses was always on the table. My Grandfather especially loved it.
Sounds like a crop we should be producing more of.
Especially with the drought that's been hanging around.
as a Texan, who is not terribly familiar with East Coast American accents, other than like, the “famous” NY accent or New England accent or southern Georgia accent, I was very very surprised, and intrigued to hear this Maryland farmer speak with what I thought to be a “southern accent” in the way that I, a Texan, imagine it to be. Fascinating! But then the other guy, Gary Dell, had the sort of east coast accent I have heard before. Hmmm so interesting a father and son with two different accents. Well anyway, I love to learn about all of the English accents and dialects no matter where they are from. Maryland,
Scotland, South Africa, Texas, Canada, all of it!
Maryland is still the South
ב''ה, you're probably in for a treat with all the low country and Gullah/creole accents from around the region. Tons of videos.
That’s a very good video. I’m wondering why you only have 15k subscribers. I felt like I was watching a story from a major news network. Great job!
I am a Floridian that happened upon your channel. I like farming videos and you popped up in my feed. Very good video. I had heard of Sorghum but did not have an idea what it was used for. Thanks. The funny thing is, I actually do business in Maryland and Virginia and may have passed by these fields.
I had no idea what sorghum was either until Farming Simulator 22. Luckily, we can take it to a grain mill and make flour out of it. It was one of the new crops for 2022. In the video game, when you harvest it, it’s a really high yield harvest, I think the highest for the grain category.
ב''ה, it also naturally tastes a bit like a snickerdoodle cookie.
The nutrition is pretty good, and fairly high sugar content like sweet corn. The amino profile is a bit distinct and complementary to more common grains.
What a fantastic, uplifting video. Thank you!
I live in central Missouri and it is grown here. Soybeans rotated with corn are king but I do see it from time to tome. It is used here for feed and also making molasses. I used to buy it from the Amish and it was very good.
The smaller the grain the healthier, the fewer calories, and the more drought tolerant it tends to be. In the USA we've generally gone for "most calories" and "shelf stable", so our crops tend to suck in other categories. Strange how we feed our more nutritious grains, such as Sorghum to wild animals, eh?
Very strange, yes.
this really interests me....our Big Farma has altered our wheat and corn to make it less nutritious and maybe sorghum is the answer to better healthier eating...I am going to plant a few seeds next year, in for nothing else to use as bird feed..
When I was a kid in North Central Kansas, sorghum was usually used to make finishing feed for cattle and hogs.
And yes, we called it milo.
"More nutritious" is debatable. Because Sorghum tends to grow in poorer soil (and evolved to survive in such soil),, it doesn't uptake a variety of micronutrients as well as wheat does. It's also lower in fiber, and the protein in sorghum is less bioavailable than the protein in wheat. The lack of gluten also makes it less suitable for some purposes, gluten is seen by some as a villain nowadays but it actually does useful things in terms of chemistry when making breads and such. That doesn't mean sorghum doesn't have value, but there isn't necessarily some weird conspiracy as to why it isn't always preferred over wheat.
That makes for nutritious animals to eat
About 40 years ago central Texas grew many acres of "milo". This almost completely stopped and switch to corn. The benefits were corn could stand much longer and not fall over making combining much easier. An insect called midge became an issue with the germ or to meat inside the outer husk was eaten. Seed breeders created a smaller seed the made old style gravity flow obsolete. The rotating planter plate would grind the seed before it would drop into drop shoot. I would estimate at least a 90% drop in acreage due these many issues.
Here in Nebraska our milo acres have dramatically dropped because corn genetics have improved so much. We used to have 1/2 our “dry land” acres in milo, 1/2 corn. It was a form of “drought insurance”. My dad always said “you will never get rich growing milo, but you will also never go broke!”
Now they have bred corn to the point that it can survive a drought as well as milo, negating the whole reason to grow it! Milo is MUCH more difficult to hybridize and with such a smaller market little profit in doing so.
Unfortunately with the drop in milo acres, pheasant and quail habitat has been greatly reduced which sucks for upland game hunters.
What part of central Texas? I’m from down south of Austin, a little town named Luling. We’ve always called it maize.
@@chrisalex8340City Market in Luling. Great BBQ!!
Farmers setting aside the growing of Milo in favor of growing corn might also have something to do with aubsidies paid to corn farmers by the government.
Sorghum syrup is a common food item here in eastern Kentucky. People make it and sell out on the roadsides in the fall.
I love this stuff. I refer to it as " poor mans maple syrup " it's great on or in everything😋. Try it in baked beans, um um!!
I grew up eating sorghum molasses mixed with butter and spread on my bread At my grandmother's house .it was delicious!
I saw sorghum growing 60 years ago in southern MO. I remember a wonderful time as a "city boy" visiting family friends grandparents there as a 7 seven year old. That one wee made such an impression on me.
Apparently this crop is also known as milo in certain areas.
I just had to look this up because I thought you meant the drink lol.
Lots of farmers in Kansas will plant a field with Milo to attract pheasant for the fall hunting season
That's what I just realized.
Excellently edited and presented! Thanks for sharing and best of luck!
I thought I had some mutant corn growing from a bird that dropped some seed. Apparently it was sorghum! Wow! We let it grow to watch and were a little disturbed. Now we know it was sorghum!!! Mystery solved!! Thank you!
ב''ה, already said this once in these comments, but when ground into flour the common food form tastes like a snickerdoodle cookie, as probably benefits from some in the recipe.
Me too! I thought it was wild corn
Sorghum is one of the oldest grains humanity has ever farmed.
So is Einkorn and Kamut, later Spelt. Teff and Kaniwa are also known.
Nice video. Informative and well produced. Thanks from San Diego.
Sorghum grown in Southeast Colorado is primarily used as animal feed, it can be ground or cracked then used similar to corn for cattle, sheep, goats, horses, and pigs. If ground fine enough one can separate out a coarse flour, as a youth my grandmother used this flour mixed with some wheat flour for cooking, one of my favorites was as a muffin...warm from the oven, fresh butter melting in with honey, jelly or jam spread over the top, but they were great just as muffins.
Sorghum is known for growing using less water than corn on our dryland acres and under long periods of dry growing with annual rainfall in the 13 inches per year range, thus gains of organic matter is highly dependent on annual rainfall. Chemical choices to combat weeds are very limited due to rainfall and being a lesser grain crop after corn and wheat for income potential. Once anyone has harvested sorghum you learn the "dust" is very itchy compared to corn or wheat too.
And for fowl ( chickens ,turkey ,ducks, etc )
Also a fowl tasting beer .
ohhhhh yah the dust! i remember it from hand threshing experimental sorghum stalks for a seed company in Lubbock!
China makes very expensive liquor called Mautai out of sorghum.
当我们带着我们的军队和俄罗斯的朋友一起到达你们这个贫穷的国家时，我们会给你们带来一些。 оварищ, вы тоже любите водку? Мы принесем водку, а наши китайские друзья принесут вам пиво. @@justayoutuber1906
Sorghum is our one of our staple foods in Botswana. You'll find it in almost all households of the 'Tswana' tribes.
TQ for sharing; a topic that is totally new to us, the Concert forest dweller here from Singapore.
On the Eastern Shore of Maryland, they were Harvesting Wheat, this was followed by Corn, Millet Seed/Sorghum, Soybeans or Clover. Then for a Fall Crop, Cabbage , Broccoli, or Brussel Sprouts. Then back to wheat. Three Crops a year.
I loved stumbling on to this channel. I'll be looking to sorghum to try and grow alongside corn.
In Oklahoma I plant MILO and Sorghum for wildlife.
It is so easy to grow. Even in a pot. Sorghum sprouts, Sorghum milk, pancakes, all is good. From Tamilnaadu South India.
So awesome, I live in the Pacific NW and feed the birds in the Winter, this Summer we had these new plants sprouting on oue property that looked like the begining of corn plants then changed to what looked like millet, but not. I figured whatever they were, they were hardy, beautiful, came from the bird seed and were still feeding this years birds, a win win situation... TY for this great video... awesome!!!
Lord, honey, down here in Alabama we've been eating sorghum syrup at breakfast for all my long life--63 years! So so good
I noticed farms growing this in central Pennsylvania over the last few years, and was wondering what it was.
Thanks for the information. I grew up in Indiana and all I really pieced together about the crop was that it was grown in fields sometimes that had poor soil and no irrigation. From what I understand, the price it commands is not that great compared to corn or soybeans but it seems to have its uses in places with less rainfall and poorer soil quality.
Growing up in Kentucky back in the 1960s, breakfast was always 1 piece of bacon, one egg and a biscuit with sorghum molasses.
It's eaten as a porridge here in South Africa. Commercially it's often mixed with other grains to make a super nutritional cereal.
Have heard of Sorghum but knew nothing about it. Very informative. Now I would like to try the syrup. Thanks for this agricultural teaching lesson. 👍
Finally thank you 🙏✊all farmers ☝️🇺🇸🌎
I was'nt sure what a farmer had planted near me. This is what it was. Sorghum. I used to work on a farm as a teen. But i never saw this. I live in central NY.
Here in Delaware, I have seen quite an increase in sorghum this year. Last year there was one field. This year I have seen at least 7 and I come across more every time I have to go to a different place around here.
Sorghum is a staple in northern Somalia. We grind it down to make a fermented batter for pancakes called Lahoh which is eaten daily. It is also eaten whole with yogurt, butter and honey or with a spicy meat stew if you want it savoury. I believe most of the Sorghum we eat comes from the USA as it says it is a product of Kansas, USA on the large sacks.
Sorghum waste material (stalk and foliage) also processes and degrades easier. Sorgum is also easier on the soil than corn.
Quail and pheasant love it. Hunted near it in Kansas.Ate some milo porridge as a kid in Pennsylvania.
I watched as a five yoar old, growing up in central Alabama, a mule walking in circles around a rolling stone sorghum press and watched the fluid being squeezed out into a large metal tank set in rock, over a roaring fire ... and being boiled down to molasses. Grandaddy fed cattle .. livestock, and US, delicious sorghum syrup with oven fired, baked homemade biscuits. ummm ... GOOD!
This is my first time hearing about this crop. Iv seen it, but didnt know what it was. Now i know. Great video!
Thanks for the education on Sorghum! I always wondered what is was and how it grew and what it looked like.
When my dad was helping on the farms growing up in the 1960s in Northern MN, they would plant corn and sorghum next to each other and run the chopper through it for silage.
Apparently this crop is also known as milo in certain areas.. Excellently edited and presented! Thanks for sharing and best of luck!.
A cut over sorghum field makes good legal dove hunting fields too. Some of the best dove hunts I've ever been on.
I have recently Started adding it to every soup ..and stew .. it has a lovely Crunch .. and taste .. and does not get Mushy even after cooked for 2 hrs in pressure cooker recipe .. very healthy ..
Helped harvest sorghum in South Africa 🇿🇦 in the 1960s and 1970s, one by one, by hand, with tinny little BEST pocket knives. Combine harvesters for this crop didn't exist then in this country, and we did our bit as we were visitors from a thousand miles away.
Out here in the oklahoma panhandle we just call it milo.
Kansas too
Nebraska as well!
Thanks for the video. I ate a lot of sorghum molasses and biscuits growing up. Loved it.
Nice seeing a combine running without gps (at least it appeared that way).
I have roof deck planters at my house near San Francisco. I grow carrots, squash, and Yukon gold potatoes in several planters. To my surprise, I thought corn was growing in one of them. Holy smokes, its sorghum! What a surprise! I intend to make sorghum popcorn with it.
In Greater China, one of the uses for sorghum is to make hard liquor. On the island Kinmen which is administrator by Taiwan, sorghum liquor is one of their top exports.
Good story. Good work. Thanks from Philly
Sorghum molasses on buttered biscuits. Yum!
"...unlike corn certain varieties can even be made into sorghum molasses." It's possible to extract a sugar syrup similar to cane syrup or sorghum syrup from corn stalks as well, just (apparently) not commercially viable to do so. I made a jarfull at home this year from post-harvest sweet corn stalks from my garden. I also make small amounts of home made sorghum molasses.
It is also good cover and food for pheasants and quail.
It’s in my bird seed and scratch grain and it comes up every year in my garden beds
Very informative, nicely done. I'll be looking for a similar video on another big crop in Maryland: turf or sod. I'm wondering how the topsoil harvested with the grass gets restored.
Love sorghum been around for ever been used as a food source for ever.
Every year the little town in Oklahoma that my dad grew up in would have what's called "Sorghum Day" in the Fall. It's essentially like a mini fair where the food is centered around Sorghum. As a kid, I wasn't a fan of the taste of Sorghum syrup, but it grew on me as I got older. Even though it's about an hour's drive away, I try to attend every year to restock on some fresh and local Sorghum syrup. Tastes similar to Molasses, but the flavor has a lot more "depth" if that makes sense. Almost like how a sharp cheddar cheese is compared to a mild cheddar.
I am from Uzbekistab. We use the sorgum flour to make bread. Sorgum bread is called “zoghora”.
Much respect to the farmer's 👍
My Father was born in Kansas in 1923. He said when he was a boy they developed Combinable Sorghum as a new crop. Before then, there was only the 8-10 foot varieties which had to be hand harvested. This changed everything. That would have been around 1930.
Growing up in East Texas it was important to befriend the farmers... we loved the sorghum fields just after harvest... The doves loved the sorghum and it made for some fantastic wing shooting as the doves came to fed. First day of dove hunting season was a school holiday.
I clicked on the video because there is a stalk that grew in my backyard from birdseed and didn't know what it was. I'm going to leave it alone and see if either the birds take it or if it will seed itself. Nice to have a little bit of a 'farm' in my backyard. lol
neat i have maybe 20 plants of this growing around a compost pile in our backyard. Had no idea what it was. Guess I'll spread a few seeds around next year.
Sorghum is the only crop not genetically modified! and this should be a motivation for Humans especially for Africa to be kept safly and be preserved!
I had some sorghum volunteer near my house. It was probably dropped by an overfed bird or animal that had been to a local bird feeder. I let it ripen. It was delicious as a boiled breakfast cereal.
I am a farmer in Arkansas and grow it occasionally when prices are up but not often as we focus on cotton,soybeans,corn,rice and wheat.Used alot in birdseed as a filler 4 weight as not many songbirds will touch it.A dove is about the only good bird 2 eat it.
Sorghum molasses. I remember as a young girl my mom took me to a farm where they grew, harvested, and used a millstone pulled in a circle by a horse. Then I remember it being boiled. Lost art in Appalachia.