How can I mill / press sweet sorghum with household equipment?
I grew sweet sorghum this year as it looked like the easiest way to grow "sugar" in New England. Now I've harvested it, but I'm hard pressed (ha ha) to find a way to mill it with generally available household equipement. Any suggestions or ideas of how I might cobble together something?
Best Answer
How about an old "Ringer" clothes washing machine? I was just at a sorghum making demo yesterday and the machine reminded me of a ringer washing machine - just bigger.
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Answer 2
Looking around at a few pages on the web, it seems that commercial grade mills exert several tons of pressing force on the sorghum to squeeze the juice out. I don't know of any normal kitchen equipment with that kind of pressure.
I think you could do the evaporation with household gear -- looks like maintaining temperature and getting the timing right will be tricky but doable.
Ideas for extracting juice that I'd try in your place (these may not work, and could possibly damage the equipment):
- juicer machine (you'll probably end up with a lot of solids in the juice)
- pasta roller with flat rolls
But given that you can find these for around $25-40, it might be worth the price to experiment and see if either has any chance of working. Then you'll know if a home sorghum refinery is at all practical.
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