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The 57th annual WV Molasses Festival will be held on September 26-28, 2024
Walker Creek historian Julius Sears, leader of the pack ...
... joined by family and friends makin' 'lasses
By Bob Weaver 2023
It was a flashback in time, the making of molasses deep into Walker Creek, near the Calhoun-Clay-Braxton line.
Walker Road man, 85-year-old Julius Sears, has been in charge of the project for many years, now developing some apprentices to carry on the work-hardy project.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s every small community had a couple of farmers with all the paraphernalia to harvest sugar cane and boil it down to make the tasty, thick elixir.
It was a social event, sometimes a lot folks coming.
Sears has been growing sugar cane near his house, and in recent years going into the backwoods called Buttermilk to harvest some more.
While it has mostly been a family affair, the event included some neighbors and friends, with most helping out with the stirring and skimming. Even the kids were helping out. In the old days they would have been given warnings to "not fall in the skimming hole."
The "skimmin' hole" is now a bucket,
with lots of leftover cane stalks
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