* rocky hammock is not incorporated but was a turpentine town in the early 1900's. it had a one room school house that was torn down when school buses started running out here to take the kids to the school in the big cow town. the wood from the school house was used to add on to my old house, which was the big house of a thousand acre farm that raised hogs, brahma bulls, sugar-cane, etc. the cane was boiled into molasses, which was distilled into moon-shine to sell to the turpentine camps. there are two spots on the farm that retain circular indentations where the mules rotated around the press to squeeze the cane stalks into juice for the molasses. the workshop has a furnace for the boiling down and the two kettles are outside, cracked and turned over.
when the botanist visited to take ailing cabbage palm samples, we were digging for the roots and being stymied by rocks and she looked up at me and said, "well, now I know why this area is called rocky hammock. how do you grow stuff here?"
"in pockets," was my reply.. and I looked around at all the oaks, some of them with roots humping above the ground, and cabbage palms. plants find a way.
Member Since: September 5, 2011 Posts: 583 Comments: 111