Trapiche Days - Making Sugar from our own Sugar Cane

 

Dianey and Anna checking on the boiling sugar cane juice

 Keli cooling down the sugar

As planned, the bulls came down the road with the sugar cane in the cart and we spent the morning extracting the juice to be boiled.  It is around 1 pm and I just went to check on how it is going, and there are about three more hours to go till the pouring.

Jorge and his family are here. It is mostly his sugar and we added a little.  I remember when we bought the farm that Nacho told us that it was the only trapiche around, or at least the biggest one and that several of the neighbors would come to use it.  We put $300  into fixing the machine that presses the cane to keep this tradition going.  Drinking fresh sugar cane juice is great and we love to use the sugar for many things including our chocolate.  This sugar came just in time to use for the next batch of chocolate we are going to make.

Last night was the second night in a row that we heard people passing by at night, and we both enjoyed the sound of the horses hooves pounding the ground rather than a motor car sound.  I remember Mt Chirripo
during my first visit to CR. There were a lot of people getting around on horses - now when I go there that is very rare.  This area so far, is a nice balance of horse and car transportation.

This is Jim writing now…

Speaking as a confirmed sugar addict, I would like to say that it is a wonderful thing when a whole community gets together to celebrate making sugar.

The kids love it because at every stage of the process there is something delicious to sample. First, of course, is the sugar cane. Then as it gets squeezed, they get to drink the pure sugar cane juice.

As it heats up in the cauldron, it boils over the edge and the kid’s job is to scrape down the hardened sugar juice, which is crunchy and sweet. After its been boiling for a while, you can pour some of the concentrated juice into a pitcher of water and it will harden into a taffy like substance - so sticky it can almost pull your teeth out.

At the end of the day, all the sugar is divided among the participants according to who contributed the sugar cane, who owns the machinery and who did most of the work. They seem to have the formula down pretty well - everybody left the trapiche looking happy with the results of the days work.