Maasdam's Famous Home Made Sorghum Syrup

16oz (1 pint) - Lynnville, Iowa

Ingredients: Sorghum

Sorghum Sweet as sugar!

Sorghum is a sweetener we knew about and when a customer asked us to find it, we went looking. Unsurprisingly, up here in the north it’s just not a common desire. In the world, sorghum is the 3rd largest grain crop! Grown to make flour, cooked like millet, and here the green stalk is squeezed to make a thick sweetener.

Finding a sorghum syrup and one that a chef would use is a long story. We spent a bunch of time asking around and following up on leads only to come up empty.

That's where the farmer's daughter comes into play. My sister-in-law grew up in Iowa, she’s the daughter in this story, and she knew about sorghum (what’s the big deal she says with her eyes) and her mom uses it every day.

I asked if the one they used was the best there was? She always gives me that incredulous look when I ask her questions like that, and answers, “I don't know but this is the one we always use from the neighbor down-the-road.” Keep in mind, my sister-in-law is a great cook, she has that knack to make everything taste homegrown great! So I trust her opinion.

So, that was the impetus to try this sorghum. And who better to ask for a second opinion than Chef Pam, who loves sorghum. She went on and on about how it worked perfectly for certain recipes and how she was a big fan. I asked her to try the sample that we had acquired. Pam tasted it, her eyes lit up, and she said, “Now that's good!”

Sorghum! The new old-fashioned sweetener from the heartland of the United States.