DURBIN — Brothers Jim and Jesse Ross have cultivated a hobby into jobs with sweet rewards.

“Back in 1992 I told my wife I’d like to learn how to make sorghum before I die,” Jim Ross said, adding his wife Margaret encouraged the notion and told him to talk to his brother Jesse about it. “We just went from there.”

The brothers studied sorghum making with about 15 different people, Ross said, and concluded they would have to put in many years of practice before they could learn the subtle signals traditional sorghum makers use to know when the job is done.

“We tried to learn, but we came up with zero,” Ross said with a chuckle. “You have to work with somebody for years before you know how to look at the bubble and see if it’s getting done.”

They found another way that better suited their plans after joining the National Sweet Sorghum Producers and Processors Association and attending the group’s convention in Nashville. It was there they discovered how to use two tools to determine the state of their sorghum.

“You can use a refractometer and a thermometer together to determine the levels. With those two instruments we learned how to cook sorghum and get a consistent thickness and quality,” Ross said.

With cane in the field and equipment awaiting harvest, Durbin Farm Sorghum Mill was born.

Each spring since, the Ross brothers have planted seven to 10 acres of cane seed and nurtured the crop until harvest time, when the work truly begins.

“It is sorgo cane, not sugar cane,” Ross said, correcting a common misconception that sugar cane is the source of sorghum. Sugar cane is planted with stalk sections instead of seed, he explained, and has different physical properties.

Ross enjoys talking about sorghum and seems to light up when asked to explain the difference between sorghum and molasses.

“Molasses is a byproduct of the sugar process. Sorghum molasses is a phrase that was once common, and there was what they called blackstrap molasses, which was scorched or overcooked sorghum,” he said, adding, “It is bad tasting stuff.”

Sorghum making, Ross explained, is essentially removing the excess water from the juice produced when raw sorgo cane is squeezed between the rollers in a mill or press. The sorghum maker also removes impurities from the juice, ultimately increasing the sugar content from 20 percent to around 80 percent. The result is a highly stable product that requires no refrigeration and serves as a perfect compliment to a hot, buttered biscuit.

At Durbin Farm Sorghum Mill, a 1930 model cane mill is used to extract the sweet juice from the pulp and cane stalk. Breaking from traditional wood and gas heat to cook the juice, the Ross brothers have invested in a steam cooking system which does the job efficiently while ensuring their sorghum doesn’t get scorched in the conversion. Otherwise, the art of making sorghum remains relatively unchanged.

“Normally, with 300 gallons of juice it takes it six or seven hours to cook off in the evaporator pan. Once it starts you don’t stop until you run out of juice.”

Jim Ross, 64, a retired refinery worker, said he and his brother Jesse, 67, who retired from Kentucky Power and the Cannonsburg water department, try to divide the farm work equally. Jim’s wife, Margaret, also gets much of the credit for getting the job done, doing everything from pulling weeds to waiting on customers. She points out they also get a bit of help from their 2-year-old great-grandaughter, Kayla, who helps supervise the process to get sorghum and apple butter in bottles with lids.

Margaret Ross also used her skills in the kitchen to develop a recipe for the apple butter, which has become a signature product at the farm.

“She puts in a lot of time, especially when we’re cooking it (sorghum) in the fall,” Jim Ross said.

Margaret Ross said the key to their apple butter’s flavor is simple.

“We take our time and cook it right. You can’t rush it,” she said.

While the harvest season and cooking chores are almost done for the year, Jim Ross said they will be heating up their last batch of sorghum this weekend. Sorghum making was labeled “a dying art” until around 1972, when the craft got a boost from a new wave of people interested in traditional food products, he said.

While there are many who make it today, it can still be difficult to find sorghum in most grocery stores and it seems there are many people who simply don’t know anything about the tarditional farm product.

Sorghum is used for a variety of purposes, most typically as a syrup and in cooking.

Jim Ross said his favorite way to enjoy sorghum is to, “mix it with butter and sop a biscuit through it.”

Family members volunteer a few hours each year to introduce people to the flavor of sorghum during the Kentucky State fair.

“Most of the people who buy sorghum are over 50 years old. Younger people often don’t realize what it is. They’ve never been exposed to it,” Jim Ross said.

The farm earns 12 to 15 ribbons per year from county and state fairs, he said, most often for work done by Margaret, as well as for the cane crop and related categories.

When you consider the investment and time involved, sorghum making isn’t an especially profitable business.

Jim Ross said none of them want to calculate how much they make compared to the time they spend.

“We just enjoy making it. We’re making no money at it,” he said with a warm smile. “We enjoy meeting the people who come out to the farm — lots of good people.”

Many of their customers are people traveling through the area, especially during the annual Kentucky Apple Festival in Paintsville.

“They get down there, and they can’t buy apples and no apple butter. We put the signs up, and they stop in on their way back, especially from Ohio,” Jim Ross said.

The family farm has a good supply of this year’s sorghum and apple butter, he said, although he can’t predict how long it will last.

“I’d say we’ll have it for quite a while. At this point, I’m not even sure how much we’ve made this year,” Jim Ross said, advising customers to look for their signs in the cold weeks to come. “Whenever we’ve got our sign out is when we’re open.”

TIM PRESTON can be reached at tpreston@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2651.