The Todd family has been “raising cane” for seven generations – in a good way.

It’s the kind of cane that goes into making a sweet Southern delicacy: cane syrup.

At one time, cane syrup was readily available across the Deep South. Over the years, however, fewer and fewer folks have kept up the tradition.

But down in Headland, in Henry County, the Todds are keeping the old ways alive in a big way. A new generation of Todd is planting cane again in the place where they first put down Alabama roots almost two centuries ago, and serving up their own brand of sweet nectar to the public.

(Mark Albertin’s Time Capsule profile of Todd Syrup Farm)

You’ll find Todd Syrup Farm and Country Market on Highway 431, in a bright new building just in front of their cane field. In addition to ribbon cane syrup – perfect for biscuits – the Todds are bottling molasses, pancake syrup, white syrup used for cooking and “amber honey,” which is new to the lineup this year.

Fifth –generation syrup maker Joe Todd completes the thirty-eighth and final syrup cooking of the 2015 season.

“What you get depends on how long you cook the cane juice and to what temperature it reaches,” explained Dewey Todd, the sixth-generation representative. “The first cooking is the ribbon cane syrup; the second cooking when you let it cook longer produces molasses. If you keep cooking for the third cooking you end up with black strap and the fourth would yield sugar.”

Dewey Todd looks over the collection of more than 300 syrup jars on display at the museum located at Todd’s Syrup Farm

The amber honey (actually another style of cane syrup) is from Dewey’s own recipe. Use it just like honey, he said, but there’s an added benefit: it contains 20 times the antioxidants of regular honey.

Dewey’s father Joe, a retired law enforcement officer and fifth-generation syrup maker, learned to make cane syrup from his father, Lockard, while growing up in Tennille, in Pike County.   After Joe retired, he moved to Cottonwood and began bottling and selling syrup there in 1997.

About two years ago, the family got together and decided it would be nice to bring the family operation back home to Henry County, where they had originally settled in 1825. That’s when Eli Todd, the first generation syrup-maker, moved to the area with Major General William Irwin. The two fought together during the Creek War, and when Irwin was granted several thousand acres in Henry County following the conflict, Todd brought his family along. So began the Todd tradition of raising cane and making syrup.

Joe is still the chief syrup cook. He perfected a cooking method that does not scorch. He uses a 60-gallon kettle located in one of the two commercial kitchens on site to heat the cane juice to the ideal 224 degrees. The heating process usually runs several hours.

It takes about 60 gallons of cane juice to produce 10 gallons of cane syrup. Once the syrup has cooled, Joe’s wife, Edria, bottles it. The family plants five acres of cane each year. This year, the Todds completed 38 cookings.

The Todds don’t limit their creative culinary juices to syrup. They also have their award-winning Todd’s Sweet & Tangy Barbeque Sauce, which uses Todd molasses as a key ingredient. This year it took first place in the brisket division of the Texas State Barbeque Cook-off in Corpus Christi.

The Todds also make and offer for sale in their market jams and jellies, as well as canned goods, preserves, pickles and sauces.  The store also carries many other gift items, and has a café which opened in October. The café serves up breakfast, which features a family recipe biscuit, and a home-style lunch. If something on the menu really tickles your fancy, you can take home a collection of family recipes in the “Todd Family Syrup Cookbook.” The cookbook also recounts the family’s colorful history and its legacy of syrup-making.

You can get an even broader history lesson in the museum the Todds have created. It houses farm implements and tools, many more than a century old, and –  of course – a collection of cane mills, 40 in all, some dating to before the Civil War. The museum also boasts the world’s largest collection of syrup containers.

Dewey Todd shows how grandma’s washing machine works from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.

Santa is onsite at Todd’s Syrup Farm until Christmas to meet and greet visitors.

The mill the Todds use now to extract cane juice dates back to the early 1930s. It was manufactured by Golden Foundries in Columbus, Ga., a town that at one time was home to three metal foundries. The Todds believe their cane mill may be among the last ones crafted in the United States that is still being used. That’s because when World War II began, the foundries shifted to supporting the war effort and none returned to making cane mills, they said.

The Todds are intent on continuing to pass down the family tradition. Dewey’s son, Will, recently joined the business, marking the seventh generation of Todds raising cane and producing syrup. Ancestor Eli is believed to have begun making syrup around 1835, which means the Todds have been at it now for 180 years.

Meanwhile, the Todds are toying with an idea that could become their next tradition. The family’s newest undertaking is to raise awareness about the health benefits of figs. “There are no Wiregrass fig farmers,” said Dewey. “Most of the figs grown in the South go to waste.”

The Todd farm already has producing fig trees, and Dewey hopes to host the first Fig Festival in the area in the next year or so.  “We hope it will become as big as the National Peanut Festival” which is held annually in nearby Dothan. “We are looking for anyone in the area who might be raising figs and hope they will contact us.”

Todd Syrup Farm and Country Market.