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October 27-28, 2023
Southern Foodways Symposium ⟶
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October 27-28, 2023
Southern Foodways Symposium ⟶

Oral Histories

The SFA oral history program documents life stories from the American South. Collecting these stories, we honor the people whose labor defines the region. If you would like to contribute to SFA’s oral history collections, please send your ideas for oral history along with your CV or Resume and a portfolio of prior oral history work to info@southernfoodways.org.

< Back to Oral History project: Sorghum: Southern Sugars

ORAL HISTORY

Renee Goss

Goss Farms Sorghum

Renee Goss was born in Fort Payne, Alabama in 1957. She grew up in Florida before her family moved back to North Alabama. When Goss was a little girl, her father raised a small plot of sorghum, and the Goss family processed it for him. As a teenager, her path with the family crossed again. She worked with her future mother-in-law, Willodean Goss, at Alvie’s Drive-In. Renee Goss eventually married Mrs. Willodean’s son, Kenneth Goss.

After Renee married Kenneth Goss, she began helping his family harvest and cook sorghum. Throughout the years, she learned the art of cooking sorghum juice into a viscous golden syrup from watching Mr. L.D and Mrs. Willodean. Goss mans the sorghum pan and sells pints and quarts of syrup to community members who stop by their sorghum shed.

Date of interview:
2018-11-27

Interviewer:
Annemarie Anderson

Photographer:
Annemarie Anderson

Download Transcript

“

“My dad had told me, my grandparents had told me, that there used to be a sorghum mill, a syrup mill just almost on every farm on the mountain, and at that point, there were still several of them existing but not functioning, because that generation was getting older or a lot of them had started passing on.” - Renee Goss

Other Project Interviews

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Phil Parker

Phil Parker cooks sorghum in Harrisburg, Arkansas.

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Ronald Jenkins

Ronald Jenkins cooks sorghum in Bruce, Mississippi.

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Steve Patterson

Steve Patterson cooks sorghum in Rome, Georgia.

Interview

Kaitlyn Elliot

Kaitlyn Elliot cooks sorghum in Gravel Switch, Kentucky.

Interview

Terry Hughes

Terry Hughes cooks sorghum in Young Harris, Georgia.

Interview

Kenneth Goss

Kenneth Goss cooks sorghum with his family in Henagar, Alabama.

Interview

Larry Goss

Larry Goss cooks sorghum with his family in Henagar, Alabama.

Interview

Michael Prince

Michael Prince cooks sorghum in Sherwood, Tennessee.

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