Long Sugar Cane

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Seasons/Availability

Sugar Cane can be harvested year round with the peak season in winter.

Description/Taste

A clump-forming rhizomatrous, this perennial grass produces stout cane-like stems. Encased in a brown bark and standing about five feet tall, straggly dry strands of leaves are attached at the top of the long sugar cane baton. Offering a sweet flavor, the white flesh is juicy and chewy.

Applications

Sugar cane requires peeling. Enjoy this taste treat eaten out of hand or cut into thin strips. Its juice contains sucrose and makes refined white sugar and brown sugar. By-products are made into syrup, rum and molasses. Cane sugar flavors and sweetens and even preserves food as it inhibits microorganisms. Refined and processed, it is made into granulated sugar for table use and cooking.

Ethnic/Cultural Info

In Thailand, sugar cane is added to fish stews and Thais love to drink the cooling stem juice which is extracted by rolling. It is said to soothe asthma symptoms and is often given as an expectorant. It is applied to boils and wounds in Asia, plus used as a diuretic along with the roots. In Brazil, the stem residue is made into fuel, primarily for powering sugar factories and their car engines, a coating for paper, ethanol and a wax polish.

Geography/History

Originating in India, sugar cane now grows in Hawaii, California and Mexico.


Recipe Ideas
Recipes that include Long Sugar Cane. One is easiest, three is harder.

Noob Cook		Water Chestnut & Bamboo Cane Drink
Razzle Dazzle Recipes		Sugar Cane Pork Tenderloin
RasaMalaysia		Vietnamese Sugar Cane Shrimp (Chao Tom)
Noob Cook		Water Chestnut Drink with Bamboo Cane