Rootbeer
My Grandfather, William Sturgen was born around 1874 and was almost 100 years old when he died.
He used to make his own rootbeer.
He would dig up sassafras root and cut it into 4 to 6 inch long pieces.
Then he would split it lengthwise into ½ inch pieces about the diameter of a pencil to help it dry faster.
After it sat on a shelf for a month to 6 weeks it was dry enough to use.
I remember taking that stuff to the fairgrounds and selling it.
We would sell 5 or 6 sticks for 50 cents, and that was back when 50 cents was a lot of money.
It was enough to get us kids into the picture show.
If you wanted to make sassafras tea, you would put 3 or 4 sticks in the water and boil it.
Sometimes he even added peppermint candy to it, to enhance the tea.
But now when he was making root beer he would make it pretty stout and add horehound candy.
That horehound is what made the rootbeer.
Now, you could only get so much juice out of the root, but the longer you boiled it, the darker it would get.
What I don’t remember is how much root and water vs. how much horehound candy to use, so I would like to know if anyone has an old recipe for homemade rootbeer.
Darrell Wiseman
Birdseye, IN