The question of all that sugar cane.

As we are heading north along the east coast it is becoming clear that there are many geographic ‘blobs’, from Byron Bay to north of Port Douglas, where sugar cane is farmed for miles and miles. To some extent it reminds me of the York Peninsular with the many miles of grain.

So  where does it all go?

Now I understand that all that sugar cane around Bundaberg is destined for the rum distillery to make this great liquid; or so I hope (J). Haha! One can only wish! However there is a vast volume of the stuff that ends up in molasses and ultimately sugar. There is a subsidiary industry that manufactures sugar cane mulch that is used in agriculture as fertilizer and for organic purposes such as retarding the growth of weeds.

There are also a raft of supporting industries that deals with supply chain and agricultural issues. There are service industries that ensure all requirements in these industries are looked after.

Below are a few links for further information.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugarcane

http://www.rochedalss.eq.edu.au/sugar.htm

http://www.canegrowers.com.au/

In most countries where sugarcane is cultivated, there are several foods and popular dishes derived directly from it, such as:

• Raw sugarcane: chewed to extract the juice
• Sayur nganten: an Indonesian soup made with the stem of trubuk (Saccharum edule), a type of sugarcane.
• Sugarcane juice: a combination of fresh juice, extracted by hand or small mills, with a touch of lemon and ice to make a popular drink, known variously as air tebu, usacha rass, guarab, guarapa, guarapo, papelón, aseer asab, ganna sharbat, mosto, caldo de cana, nước miá.
• Syrup: a traditional sweetener in soft drinks, now largely supplanted in the US by high fructose corn syrup, which is less expensive because of corn subsidies and sugar tariffs.^{[citation needed]}
• Molasses: used as a sweetener and a syrup accompanying other foods, such as cheese or cookies
• Jaggery: a solidified molasses, known as gur or gud or gul in India, is traditionally produced by evaporating juice to make a thick sludge, and then cooling and molding it in buckets. Modern production partially freeze dries the juice to reduce caramelization and lighten its color. It is used as sweetener in cooking traditional entrees, sweets and desserts.
• Falernum: a sweet, and lightly alcoholic drink made from sugarcane juice
• Cachaça: the most popular distilled alcoholic beverage in Brazil; a liquor made of the distillation of sugarcane juice.
• Rum: is a liquor made from sugarcane products, typically molasses but sometimes also cane juice. It is most commonly produced in the Caribbean and environs.
• Basi: is a fermented alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane juice produced in the Philippines and Guyana.
• Panela: solid pieces of sucrose and fructose obtained from the boiling and evaporation of sugarcane juice; a food staple in Colombia and other countries in South and Central America
• Rapadura: a sweet flour that is one of the simplest refinings of sugarcane juice, common in Latin American countries such as Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela (where it is known as papelón) and the Caribbean.
• Rock candy: crystallized cane juice

Gâteau de Sirop