Sugar Cane

Connie and I happened upon a field of Sugar Cane right after it was burnt and into an area that was being harvested. It is an interesting process to watch.

1. a field of Sugar Cane after it has been burnt. The smell is very strong .

--This field was newly planted with cane that will grow for 18 months before being ready to burn and harvest.
The field just beyond is where they are cutting and loading the cane into bins to be loaded onto semi trucks for transport to the Sugar Refining Mill in Santa Rosa.

They try to burn 200 acres a day between the hours of 10 am and 3 pm. It takes 20 minutes for 40 acres of cane to burn start to finish. The sound is like a loud roar.

We get information from some of the workers but others had to point to someone who spoke English.
It is an adventure getting to the area where the trucks and tractors are working and getting someone to stop working and speak with you. Sometimes you have to drive "Baha" conditions,
[don't tell Bob , If you go slowly the Alero manges ruts and dirt rows pretty well]

Trying out Connie's truck next time.

Any time we are bored we go" chasing the cane" , following the smoke to an area where it is burning and then looking for Sugar Cane Growers trucks and following them to the next field to be burnt. The dark cloud of smoke we see just "over there" is usually 5-10 miles down some dirt cow path..Sometimes we get lucky and find a target field before it is set afire, but usually we are too late to catch the actual burn. We have not got to a burn yet this year. We keep trying .



Richard would be proud of these straight rows...
Note: Go back to another blog, Pepe's on the River...