​Okay folks! It's hard to believe it's that time of year again... Halloween is just around the corner and I thought I would share one of my favorite halloween treats with you guys: Popcorn balls made with delicious Sweet Dekota's Sorghum!Some of my fondest halloween memories were made "yumming"over these things! One of our oldest family friends/neighbors used to come load up a 5gallon bucket of daddy's sorghum just before the big night! Now we live in the country, but kids would come from all over for a chance to eat one of these renowned popcorn balls!So! In honor of the most fun holiday, to kick off the fall season, I wanted to leave you prepared with the recipe of these salty sweet bits of goodness. I hope you all enjoy and please leave comments/questions if you have any!

Sorghum Molasses Popcorn Ball Recipe
-1 cup Sugar  -1/4 cup Sorghum  -1/4 cup water
-1 tsp salt -1 tbsp butter  -2 qt popcorn  -butter for rolling easeIn a 2-quart saucepan, combine sugar, sorghum syrup, water, salt, and butter. Cook to the hard ball stage (about 250° on candy thermometer), stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Working quickly, stir in popped corn and turn into a buttered pan. With buttered hands, shape into balls and place on waxed paper to cool.
Makes about 6 popcorn balls.

        My dad, John, is continuously developing new flavors for his customers on special requests. I wanted to share the most peculiar recipe he was asked to make and how that sparked another idea for a way to use our product.
        If you happen to be a syrup enthusiast, you may have heard of the annual Syrup Sopping Festival held in Loachapoka, AL. A vendor planning to attend the festival once approached my dad and asked him to make mint flavored syrup. Intrigued, he asked them what in the world they planned to do with mint flavored syrup! To his surprise they told him it was to be used as a topping for their Butter Pecan ice-cream. What?? Butter Pecan and Mint?? hmmmm.... As you would expect, my dad took up the challenge. He came home and dirtied every dish in our tiny kitchen until he got the recipe just how he wanted it. Did I say every dish? Ok.. Because I meant it; EVERY DISH much to my mother's dismay. When he had it just about right, he allowed us to taste it... but not just any taste. We had to taste it on the Butter Pecan ice cream. Being the picky eater in the family, I was disgusted at the thought. I don't even LOVE Butter Pecan. How could I even think of liking Mint on top of it? But, I tried it out of curiosity. I won't say I loved it but it wasn't terribly unpleasant. For someone who loved Butter Pecan ice-cream, his syrup added an appropriate flare. His clients loved it and bought a whole load of it to take with them to the festival. I'm told it sold extraordinarily well!
        Even though I was not a fan of Butter Pecan drizzled in Mint, their request got me thinking, and what was my next move? I put every kind of syrup I could find in our warehouse atop my favorite ice-cream, plain ol' Blue Bell Vanilla. I tried Maple, Blueberry, Cherry, Butter Pecan, Ribbon Cane, and finally came to my favorite combination: Strawberry syrup drizzled over Vanilla ice-cream with whipped cream to top it all off. HEAVEN!! I strongly recommend trying this combo! My next favorite topping was the Blueberry. I've said all this, not only to better acquaint you with our small family business that is Anthony's Syrup Company, but also to provoke you to think outside of the same old "pancake mix" box and venture into other territories where you can find our syrup to be a satisfying a comfort food without going through the trouble of scratching up a batch of biscuits or pancakes! Hope you enjoyed the story and please feel free to leave comments and ideas of your own!