The Sweet Cane

The sugar cane is flowering in my school garden. The feathery pink flowers are typical grass flowers, with no smell.

The sugar cane in the fields on Mysore road have just been harvested and sent to the sugar mills. Some of the sugar cane juice is made into the golden brown jaggery , which is used in the traditional sweets of India.

Sugar cane juice is a popular drink sold all over India, in street corner mills. The washed sugar cane is fed into the hand driven or power driven mill and the juice is extracted. Lemon juice, rock salt and ginger added to the cane juice make it very refreshing and energizing. The fresh juice costs one third the price of Coke or Pepsi, besides being health giving. It is claimed that a daily glass of sugar cane juice prevents breast cancer.