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sugar beets

13 years ago

any one else growing sugar beets? this is my first year. have sampled one or two along the way, they taste fantastic. from online reading, had planned to harvest after first frost. hit 32 last night, that finished the tomatoes, but beet foliage seems barely affected. I harvested about 1/3 and am cooking them now, but left the others for now to see how they respond. would love to leave them longer if I can, as the next frost is probably at least a couple weeks away and I read that they are best (most sugar) after a HARD frost. how is anyone else preparing them? we are boiling and freezing them. actually, I have them in the steam juicer, am collecting the juice to boil down into a molasses or maybe crystals if I go that far. Just curious if anyone else is doing this too and had pointers. thanks

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Comments (4)

gardendawgie
13 years ago
leave them in the ground.

I feel sure they will last until Thanksgiving and probably Christmas.

You can cover the beet root that is above ground to give it protection if you are nervous.
denninmi
13 years ago
I had a beautiful stand going earlier, and deer came in and ate them completely, leaving NOTHING behind except hoofprints. The loss was so complete that, had there NOT been hoofprints, I would have thought aliens or Scotty from the USS Enterprise had beamed them up in the night.

I like them too for table use, but have always picked them really young, no bigger than a baseball or softball at most.

How big are yours, when did you plant them, and are they woody or fibrous inside?
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Flora, that site is very interesting. They sell alot of soil and stone that comes in with the beets....I never would have thought there would be enough of either to do much with. Guess I don't understand the huge amounts of beets being brought in....17% sugar according to them, also. Our state, Michigan, has a large sugar beet industry. It produces almost a billion pounds of sugar each year. A quick calculation I did using some numbers from the company's site shows "our" beets yielding about 13% sugar. Sounds like that would be 1.3 pounds of sugar from 10 pounds of beets....processed under ideal conditions, not in my kitchen :) I've made maple sugar starting with a tapped maple tree. Maybe it's time to experiment with beet sugar just for fun. I'll be asking a few questions next time I'm by the farm supply store. Here is a link that might be useful: Michigan sugar beet industry
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When I did a search for photos, they (monogerm) look like typical beet seeds (fruit?) just smaller. What I received look like poppy seeds but blacker whereas poppy seeds often look a blue-black color. Would a company that sells seed internationally go through the trouble of removing the actual seeds from the shell to save on shipping? Maybe they have factories in China where labor rates are probably like $1.20 per day (8-10 work hours) and have crews smashing open beet seedpods and harvesting the actual seeds inside. I know commercial tomato seeds are de-fuzzed for weight reduction, maybe disease reduction too, but beet seeds?? What is your job? "Beetcracker." The other problem from the same vendor was Stevia seeds that turned out to be basil once they germinated. Maybe I better try germinating some of these in #4 coffee filter paper to see what they look like germinated?
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cindy-6b/7a VA
13 years ago
Just curious - are you talking about purple (Detroit Red) beets or sugar beets?

Beets (red) can also be yellow, striped or even white.

Cindy
tnkrgrl
13 years ago
in this area sugar beets are commercially grown...we just had our first hard frost last night but all the beets are out of the ground.

I'm not sure about harvest for the home gardener...but here the commercial growing season is April-September/early october. I personally wouldn't leave them any longer

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