Simple, No-Crush Sugar Cane Syrup

Here is how I made the most delicious sugar cane syrup I've ever tasted from the sugar cane growing in my back yard.

I took 3 average stalks of sugar cane perhaps 4-5 feet in length and cleaned them thoroughly with a mildly abrasive scrubber and some water. After giving them a good rinse I cut them into 2-3 inch pieces (see picture).

I then cut them into quarters with a cleaver. Careful, they split very easily, like tiny logs.

Next I topped the sugar cane off with water. Depending on how long you want to boil, perhaps you could add up to an extra inch of water above the level of sugar cane.

I boiled for perhaps 30-45 minutes. After boiling, I chewed on one of the stalks and it was still filled with unbelievably sweet sugar cane juice so I cut each piece in half (now eighths) and repeated the process.

(For waaay too much effort, you could do what I did and crush as many pieces as you can stand with a sturdy pair of pliers to squeeze more juice out but I don't think that's entirely necessary.)

Next, I boiled down the juice until it got to the consistency of syrup. As a side note, it ended up a little too thick once refrigerated so perhaps use your judgment here and stop boiling a little bit earlier.

Safety Note: WATCH IT BOIL! Don't take your eye off of it for one second! When this wants to boil over it will happen in no time flat. Please, don't set off your fire alarm like I did.

Here's a picture of how much syrup 3 sugar cane stalks provided after one boil.

Here's the amount I got after a second boil and cutting the pieces of sugar cane in half again. This is perhaps a little over a cup.

If you don't have a way of crushing the sugar cane and have a little time on your hands, this is a fun and relatively problem-free way to get some awesome tasting syrup from your own back yard!