The process of sugar cane farming and processing is as follows:

1. March-April: cultivation & fertilizing

2. Early summer: grading the fields for drainage• August-September: planting season

3. September-January: grinding season

4. November-February: burning

Planting

Cane grows from the “eyes” on the stalks of existing cane. A field of full grown cane is cut down with a cane harvester, loaded standing straight up into a trailer, and then hand-planted back into the ground with three stalks laid flat on top of each other, then covered with soil. This “mother cane”, as it’s called, will stay in the ground three years and new cane will continually grow all three years from that one piece of cane from the “eyes” of the cane stalk. Although some farmers use a machine for planting, Ourso insists on planting by hand to yield the best results and to prevent rot of the mother cane.

Grinding/Sugar Mill

When cane is one year old, a chopper/harvester machine pulled by a combine tractor cuts the 8-foot tall cane and it spits it out into a side wagon as 6-8” pieces. When it’s filled, the wagon is brought to the sugar mill, within 12-24 hours, before it starts souring.

Once at the mill, the cane is cut into small pieces with a large cutter making it easier to squeeze the cane juice. The sliced cane pass through a series of 5 large roller mills, squeezing more and more juice out each time. This dirty juice is then boiled at high temperatures, crystallized through spinning process using a large centrifuge, and then left out to dry as a brown sugar. The sugar is stored in massive warehouses waiting distribution and refining.