Sorghum

Facts about sorghum:

• Sorghum was first domesticated 8000 BC in Ethiopia and Sudan.
• The first recorded passage in the United States that mentions sorghum was from the pen of Benjamin Franklin, who mentioned its use in making brooms in 1757.
• The “sorghum belt” encloses a swath of the United States from Texas to South Dakota, where it enjoys the arid climate.
• The appropriately-named city of Cane Hill, Arkansas holds an annual Cane Hill Harvest Festival where they squeeze sorghum using a draft horse and an old fashioned press.

The steps to make sorghum seem deceptively simple, although it is rumored you are not good at making sorghum until you are at least 70 years old.

1. Plant in May.
2. Harvest in September by lopping off the seed heads and stripping the leaves.
3. Using a scythe, cut the cane as close to the ground as possible.
4. Feed the cane into the press 3-5 canes at a time.
5. Use a draft horse or mules to turn the press.
6. Catch the green juice as it pours out the other side of the press.
7. Add the juice to a very large cooking vessel over a perfectly temperate fire.
8. Cook the entire batch of juice at once since it takes a long time to cook.
9. Skim the green foam from the surface of the sorghum as it cooks.
10. When the bubbles turn from green to brown, your sorghum is almost ready.
11. Sample to see if it is done. It will thicken as it cooks. Be sure it is evenly cooked; raw sorghum will mildew.
12. Can in a sterile glass jar.

Old Independence Regional Museum has a series of pictures along with a sorghum scythe on display in our “A Taste of Community” exhibit, which we are presenting in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum on Main Street. Come by and see this exhibit beginning January 23, 2024. We look forward to seeing you at the museum!

Happy Hanukkah! In recognition of Hanukkah, Old Independence Regional Museum presents the history of Simon Adler, one of Batesville’s first and most respected businessmen.

Simon Adler is well remembered for his three-story building at 151 West Main Street in Batesville as well as being one of Batesville’s most prominent businessmen. Born in Bavaria in 1832, Adler emigrated to the United States and found his way to Batesville in 1856, where he joined his brother, Israel, who was a partner in a general store.

Adler and three of his brothers thrived in retail, farming, and mail couriering into the 1860s. All four Adler brothers left Batesville at the onset of the Civil War. While his brothers remained in other areas of North America after the war’s end, Simon returned to Batesville, but had to start over from scratch since his brother, Israel, had removed most of the business’s possessions when he departed the city. Regardless, Simon eventually gained full ownership of the general store and the accompanying land. Adler was the sole Jewish resident in Batesville for ten years directly after the Civil War. In 1880 the numbers grew as Simon and Emilie Altschul married and subsequently had two sons, Nathan and Ray.

Adler’s store was housed in the Batesville Institute building until 1880 when a fire destroyed the building. He rebuilt Adler Hall, a two-story building, on the same lot. A general store was located on the ground floor with an opera house, ballroom, and offices on the second floor.

Adler is remembered for his People’s Savings Bank located at 161 West Main Street and his method of conducting business as he walked down Main Street by pulling bills and notes from his hat and distributing them as he saw his business acquaintances.

Simon Adler died in 1904. Nathan, his son, kept the Adler business thriving in half the downstairs space of the Adler Building, opening the remaining space to other Jewish merchants new to the city. Nathan sold the building to the Yeatman-Gray Grocery Company in 1916. We are happy to celebrate Simon Adler and his family this first day of Hanukkah. Happy Hanukkah to all our friends of the Jewish faith!