| Cannin' Syrup: Grandma always said when you have a good thing going - then don't change it. Grandma Lillian lived by these words. After marrying Charley Steen Jr. in the early nineteen hundreds, she and her mother-in-law worked side by side canning syrup. "In those days one of us would fill the can with freshly cooked syrup and the other of us would snap on a lid. A man would take it from us, place it on a platform and roll it under a large fan to cool it off (which stopped the can of syrup from further cooking.) After the cans could be handled, it was time to label them. We would make a homemade paste, brush it on the identifying tag and place the tin cans in cases. I remember it was really hard work; we truly put our hearts and souls into what we were doing. You know I have seen the Mill run by four generations of Steen's. We've been through a lot together – the times have sure changed in all these years. I tell you one thing – it's a lot easier on those canning lines they have now than the way we had to do it then." – Lillian B. Steen home · history · recipes · Steen's Gift Shop · guestbook · freebies· links Contact Info: (800)725-1654 steens@steensyrup.com |