THE HILLS of St Peter are always sweet this time of the year when freshly cut sugar cane is ground at the historic St Nicholas Abbey.
Many tourists visited the old plantation on Thursday during an open day showcase to witness the big muscles of the steam mill in action crushing the grass crop. 
Visitors from the United Kingdom and Germany took pictures with their friends and family as the steam mill operators worked the machine.
Very intrigued by the spectacle, some of them asked questions to better understand how the process works, while some of them who never saw sugar in its primary state asked to taste piece of a stalk.
The steam mill operators heaped sugar cane a few metres away from an old mill wall and carefully loaded it onto the machine.
Within a matter of minutes the cane trash shoots out from the mill and the liquid travels straight to the boilers.
The cane juiced is then used to make molasses for rum produced at the Cherry Tree Hill plantation. (SB)
The cane is loaded into the machine length way.
Cane trash is loaded onto a trailer and recycled to make bagasse.
