This is a young field of sugar cane, planted earlier this year; it'll be harvested in 2008.
Once the cane is old enough the irrigation is withheld so that the cane will produce more sugar. 2 months after that the field is set afire, burning off the leaves and leaving the cane stalks. The stalks are loaded on to trucks as many hopeful egrets stand by.
The truck is then unloaded at the sugar mill.
The stalks are ground, pressed, washed (and many other things that I don't remember). The bagesse (cane trash) is separated and burned to provide electricity for the mill. The sugar water is washed again, turned into a syrup, crystallized, and molasses is separated out and sold as cattle feed. Eventually you end up with brown raw sugar, which is then sent off to C&H in California.
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