The smell of sausage biscuits smothered in sugarcane syrup and sweet and salty kettle corn exploding in a cauldron saturated the air at the Loachapoka Syrup Sopping Day Saturday.
Scarlet candied apples contrasted the overcast morning as parents took their turns paying $2 for their youngsters to sit atop a mule as it plodded in a circle to power a sugarcane mill.
"We had syrup, and Sarah rode the mules around," said Cory Smith about he and his daughter Sarah. "I'm amazed at how big it is, I had no idea. We'll have to come again next year."
But riding the mules that grind the cane isn't the only attraction.
There was also the Poultry Palace Trained Chicken Eggzibit.
At the exhibit, children and their parents listened to songs about farms animals and petted a variety of chickens.
"I'm entertaining the crowd and educating them at the same time with the Poultry Palace Trained Chicken Eggzibit," said Joseph Puiszis, who operated the show.
Puiszis said this was his first time at the Syrup Sop. He said he enjoyed performing in front of the large crowds despite the chilly weather.
Puiszis was not the only one at the Syrup Sop trying to teach others.
"I teach people, young kids," said Ralph Scharpless of Elba. "(I) try to get young kids interested in hand craft, doing something with your hands besides something on electronics."
Scharpless demonstrated how to carve wood on a wood lathe.
A wood lathe is a device which swiftly spins a piece of wood. While the wood spins, Scharpless deftly carves the wood with different tools.
"I'll pre-turn a lot of things before I leave home," Scharpless said. "And what I do, I'll find somebody with a small child, maybe. And if they're interested, I'll finish it and I'll give it to them."
But while the Syrup Sop features many attractions, the main event is the demonstration of how sugarcane syrup is made.
There are two mills at the Syrup Sop. Each has a single mule turning the machine which grinds the juice from the sugarcane.
The juice is later poured onto a series of trays where the impurities are sifted out and the water is boiled away.
Doug Cook of Beauregard was one of several people helping make the syrup.
Cook said his job is to keep the fire heating the trays at a consistent temperature and to maintain a consistent flow of cane juice.
"My father-in-law, Jerry Popwell, and his father, Pa Popwell, from Birmingham, got some cane one time, and they wanted to grow it," Cook said. "And we grew enough to where we could start trying to cook it to make syrup with. And that's been about 12 years ago."
Cook said he and his family were part of the Syrup Sop because people from Loachapoka heard about their syrup-making operation. They asked Cook and his family to take over for the man who used to make the syrup for the Syrup Sop, as he was planning to retire.
Across the road from the Syrup Sop is its predecessor, the Lee County Historical Society Fair.
Syrup Sopping Day began in 1972 when it branched off from the LCHS's Fair.
Bill Skinner was one of the fair's volunteers.
"(I'm) making points, blades and flakes," Skinner said as he used a tool to shape a piece of stone into an arrowhead. "Big 'uns and little 'uns."
Robert Campbell, a graduate student in adult education, was working in the blacksmith forge.
"My job is to demonstrate some of the things people might not know about, educate them," Campbell said. "And I've done some things from giving them tours of the museum. A few years back I ran a still for them, which was fairly interesting."
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