I just found out how easy it is to make your own sugar using beets! I have tools for making maple syrup but beet sugar making looks alot easier! Here is the instructions:http://www.ehow.com/how_2177131_sugar-beets.html
making sugar
- Thread starter Deemy
- Start date
breezyhill
Veteran Member
wow, that was pretty cool. are sugar beets the red kind you grow regularly? I would be willing to try that, growing and making sugar.
breezyhill
breezyhill
From what I understand they are called SUGAR beets and not the regular ones we grow for beets. Was telling a friend about this and she said that once you pull the beets you have to start making it fast because the sugar breaks down if you let them sit for awhile...I think I'm going to see if I can find some seeds to try this. Guess in Texas they grow really big.
Several of the seed catalogs have sugar beet seeds, and yes they grow much larger than the regular red beets we usually grow.
A long time ago, I knew a lady who grew them in her garden - they were larger not as red. When she made pickled beets, she would use half sugar beets, and half regular red beets. The sugar beets would take on the red color of the red beets - and because of the sugar content of the sugar beets, she did not add any sugar to the recipe.
A long time ago, I knew a lady who grew them in her garden - they were larger not as red. When she made pickled beets, she would use half sugar beets, and half regular red beets. The sugar beets would take on the red color of the red beets - and because of the sugar content of the sugar beets, she did not add any sugar to the recipe.
Walrus Whisperer
Hope in chains...
Here in Montana they grow REALLY big, too-about the size of a human head. You do NOT want to be downwind of a sugar beet factory. That smell would gag a maggot. We have a sugar beet factory here, thats how I know that one! 
The timing is apparently not all THAT critical-they pile mountains of them outside the factory and they scoop them up and load them on the conveyor belt. The sugar making season here ends late Jan to early february, if theres a bad freeze coming they hasten to get them processed because if they freeze, they apparently go bad quick. I do know that they sell the used up beets to make animal food -I'm guessing for the roughage and possibly some small nutritive value.
The timing is apparently not all THAT critical-they pile mountains of them outside the factory and they scoop them up and load them on the conveyor belt. The sugar making season here ends late Jan to early february, if theres a bad freeze coming they hasten to get them processed because if they freeze, they apparently go bad quick. I do know that they sell the used up beets to make animal food -I'm guessing for the roughage and possibly some small nutritive value.
now that the sugar beets will be genetically modified, it might be good to grow your own assuming you can find beets that are not GM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=267607
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=267607
spinnerholic
Inactive
I couldn't get the link to work!!!
oldladydoolin
Inactive
I just googled sugar beets and while they only cost $1.39 a pack, you end up with only three teaspoons of sugar per stalk or beet. I think I'll still buy some anyways.
lectrickitty
Great Great Grandma!
http://rareseeds.com/seeds/Beetroot/Albino This is a heirloom white sugar beet. I think I'll order it and make some sugar next year. It sounds like fun.