The Liberty Lions Club Fall Festival, a tradition which has going strong since the 1970s, was held over the weekend of October 4th through 5th. The festival is the largest gathering in the Given-Liberty-Kenna area, and features live music, clogging, apple butter and molasses making, homemade desserts, locally raised honey, and arts and crafts vendors. The Sounds of Bluegrass, a local musical group with ties to the Hurricane Creek area, performed on Saturday evening.

During the festival, volunteers make both apple butter and molasses on site, with the finished products being sold as a fundraiser for the club.

The molasses comes from sugar cane which is grown on an acre-and-a-half sized patch located on Young Hollow. Youth from the Ripley FFA Chapter help out with cutting the cane when it is time to harvest. The drought stunted this year’s growth, but hardship has a positive side for sugar cane, as dry growing conditions causes the molasses to have a higher sugar content.

After being harvested, the sugar cane stalks are transported on skids to a sorghum mill which is located near the Liberty Lions clubhouse. Frank’s Old Mill is named in honor of Frank Asbury, who used to run the one-hundred-year-old John Deer sorghum mill. After being squeezed out from the stalks, the juice runs through underground pipes to the cooking pan, which is located in a shed downhill from the mill. Once the molasses is ready, it is poured into jars and made available for sale.

To purchase molasses or apple butter, call the Liberty Lions Club at 304-988-0015.