Summarize the following:
After a season outside, they'll have mildew and dirt on them. Use warm water and a scrub brush to scrub dirt and debris from the stems until they're completely clean. The stems will be quite stiff, so a meat cleaver is a better tool for the job than a knife. Chop the stem into small sections, then chop those in half so you have a pile of small pieces of sugar cane. If you had a commercial sugar cane press, chopping the stems wouldn't be necessary. On large farms, juice is extracted from sugar cane using huge, heavy presses. There is no equivalent machine suitable for home use, so the chop-and-boil-method is used instead. The sugar is extracted through a long process of boiling the pieces down for about two hours. The sugar water is ready when it has the same flavor as a piece of raw sugar cane. You'll have to taste-test it to determine when it's ready. Another clue is to look at the sugar cane pieces. After a few hours, the color will turn to a light brown, which indicates the sugar has been extracted. Check the pot every half hour or so to make sure that the pieces are still covered with water; if not, add more. Use the strainer to catch all the fibrous pieces of sugar cane. You don't need these anymore, so you can discard them. Boil the sugar water until it cooks down significantly and takes on the texture of thick syrup. This can take anywhere from one to two hours, so be sure to monitor the pot to make sure you don't overcook it. To test whether the syrup is ready, dip a cold spoon in the pot and check the texture. If you like your syrup on the thin side, you can remove it from heat when it still easily slides from the back of the spoon. For thicker syrup, remove it from heat when it coats the back of the spoon instead of slipping right off. Place a lid on the jar and allow the syrup to cool completely before storing it in a cool, dry place.
Scrub the stems. Chop the stems into one-inch sections. Boil the sugar cane pieces in a large stockpot filled with water. Pour the sugar water through a strainer into a smaller pot. Cook down the sugar water to turn it into syrup. Pour the syrup into a glass canning jar.