POWERGRAMS

15 There is one thing visitors can count on at the Southeast Energizers annual auction: the chance to buy pure sugar cane syrup and honey. These naturally sweet staples are compliments of Glenn Dickerson, a longtime Energizers member and Alabama Power retiree. For years, Dickerson has provided boles of homemade syrup, made from sugar cane grown in his backyard. It's the same with honey made by bees on Dickinson's 6 acres in Webb. That deliciousness comes with a price when spirited bidding erupts among those vying for Dickerson's wares. That was the scene at the March Energizers auction in the Southeast Division Headquarters auditorium in Eufaula, where bidders competed for 10 pint-size jars. "What's so good about the syrup and honey is that people like it," said Dickerson, who retired aer working for 31 years as an electrical engineer in the Enterprise, Eufaula, Phenix City and Headland offices. "People bid on the syrup, and we've sold it for up to $90 a jar, and made up to $500 a year by selling the syrup." The earnings from Dickerson's donations have helped the Southeast/ Farley Division donate nearly $70,000 to more than a dozen worthy charities in the past 10 years. Through the years, Dickerson has tried his hand at growing crops ranging from watermelons to peanuts to sugar cane. For this farmer, making old-fashioned cane syrup is a labor of love and a way of keeping a Southern tradition alive. About five years ago, he joined the Alabama Syrup-Makers Association to learn more about cane cooking. It doesn't take much sugar cane to make the popular syrup, said Dickerson, who last year grew about 2,000 stalks in his pasture. "We plant the cane in the fall, and it replenishes itself every year," he said. Cane that reseeds, known as ratooning, comes up from the old stalks. Sugar cane is sweet and ripe by October. "It takes about 300 to 400 stalks to convert 60 gallons of cane juice into about 10 gallons of syrup in a cast-iron pot," Dickerson said. "I only do two cookings a year, up through October to December." The process includes stripping, cuing and squeezing the cane, then filtering the juice and ENERGIZERS Southeast Division Executive Secretary Brooke Goff made a bid for Dickerson's cane syrup and won; in center, Energizer Dan Farmer holds a jar of "Uncle Glenn's" coveted sugar cane syrup. Backyard Benefits DICKERSON'S BEES, SUGAR CANE YIELD SOUTHEAST FUNDS by Donna Cope • Photography by Dan Anderson

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