DEWAYNE HOLLOWAY|dewayne@mcnews.online
MOUNT IDA – The Heritage House Museum of Montgomery County will host their 12th annual Sorghum Festival this Saturday, October 9. The festival gives everyone a chance to get out and enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of the Heritage House Museum and sorghum cook room.
The annual event is held at the museum which is located at 819 Luzerne Street in Mount Ida and is free for everyone.
The festival celebrates the history of Montgomery County and specifically the cooking of sorghum. The Hodge Black Memorial Cook Room will be steaming up the area as it fires up this weekend. Recent events have struggled to have enough cane to harvest a full batch of sorghum, but that shouldn’t be the case this year. In the past volunteers have depended on one crop for their cane. This year they have multiple farms providing cane for the event.
The locally grown sorghum is harvested and delivered to the museum grounds. They will then crush the sorghum cane to extract the juice which is then cooked onsite. All of this is open to the public to see. Traditionally they use a belt driven crusher and a mule powered machine. The juice from the cane is then transported to the cook room where it will be cooked into sorghum. The process involves heated tubs with baffles that allow the sorghum to cook as it is being moved through the pans.
There will be opportunities to taste locally made sorghum on fresh baked biscuits. There will also be sorghum cookies available.
A grist mill demonstration is planned for the festival, as well as other period appropriate demonstrations. Vendors will be onhand as well to offer plenty of fun for the whole family.
The fun isn’t contained to the outdoor facilities. Inside the museum Lauren Weston will be performing demonstrations on the museums recently renovated floor loom. The museum is filled with exhibits expounding about various aspects of the history of Montgomery County. One of the newest and more popular attractions is a working pay phone.
The Sorghum Festival will be held Saturday, October 9, beginning at 8 a.m.
For more information please visit the Heritage House Museum on Facebook, or call them at (870) 867-4422.
12th Annual Sorghum Festival set for Saturday
