Sugar cane press

One Saturday morning we wandered up to the home of our beading teacher up in the hills -- the same family that has let Emmett ride their horse before.  The dad of the family was busy pressing sugar cane into juice -- complete with a horse tethered to a wooden log, turning the press and extracting the sugar cane juice.  It seemed like it could have been a scene from 100 years ago.

José is feeding the sugar cane into the press, and a stream of juice is coming out the right side unto a bucket.  There are several full buckets already.  He has a big pile of cane to his left, and the pressed fibers to his right.  They use the juice to make "panela," which is sort of like the brown sugar that we have in the States -- but not quite as soft.

Here is the REALLY big pile of harvested cane.  I suspect the neighbors all pool their crops and share the equipment to get the job done.

If you have never tried fresh sugar cane juice with lime, you are missing out.  Just saying.