After the floodwaters brought on by Hurricane Irma subsided it seemed our efforts to revive sugarcane on Sapelo Island might be over as the first phase of cane planted at SICARS looked to be ruined.  Fortunately, Stanley Walker saw hope and suggested Maurice Bailey and Nik Heynen flush the saltwater out with freshwater through irrigation system set up at SICARS and the cane might survive.  It did indeed!  So we are happy to say that after building a new set of raised beds next to SICARS we harvested the first 125 row feet of cane and have been able to plant 578 new row feet of  sugarcane which constitutes the second phase of revival.  We now have a total of about 700 row feet of sugarcane in the ground and growing strong.  As is well known, Ms. Cornelia passed just a month prior to this successful planting and while we have mourned her loss, we have been inspired to keep pushing her vision of reviving these heritage crops on Sapelo.

Tags: purple ribbon sugarcane, SICARS, UGAMI