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Local volunteers will demonstrate how sorghum is made by cooking down the juice into molasses at the annual Sorghum Festival on Sept. 21 at Tipton-Haynes State Historic Site in Johnson City.

The team will show the step-by-step process of making sorghum, including using a mule to turn the mill. A biscuit and gravy breakfast with sorghum will be served from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Breakfast is $2 extra with admission.

The Sorghum Festival at Tipton-Haynes is a time-honored tradition that developed around the need for sweeteners in the past. Sugar was very expensive to import from the Caribbean, and sugar cane could not be grown everywhere. Sorghum is a different variety of sugar cane that can be grown in native soil and produces sorghum molasses. The process involves harvesting the cane, crushing it into juice, and then boiling it into sticky molasses, which can be used as a sweetener.

The process is done on-site. The cane is grown in the Tipton-Haynes garden, harvested, crushed with the site’s mill and a local volunteer’s mule, and then boiled on-site in the furnace.

The event continues throughout the afternoon and evening with several local bluegrass and old-time bands, local vendors, food trucks, a Ford Model A car show, hit-and-miss engines, and more.

Attendees are also invited to enjoy the open historic house and explore the cave on the property.

Admission is $6 for adults and $3 for children 12 and under. Tipton-Haynes members are free.

Tipton-Haynes State Historic Site is located at 2620 S. Roan St., Johnson City.