sugar beet into sugar

[mollykins]

I assume sugar beet gets turnd into sugar, but how?

And does the vegetable taste of sugar?

[marval]

I don't know, have a look at this though.

http://www.sucrose.com/lbeet.html

[Clanad]

Here in the western U.S., many farmer's cooperatives grow sugar beets. It's a plant that grows well in both non-irrigated as well as dry land farming regions. During the fall harvest, the sugar beets (some as large as a man's head) are loaded quite high on open trucks on their way from the farm to the storage pile or beet factory. Sometimes the beets roll off as the truck rounds a corner. As young, inquisitive resident of the area, I picked one up and brought it home. Unfortunately, my Mon and Dad weren't home, else the rest of the story woulld be a moot point.
I had some notion (due to the proximity of a sugar beet factory) that one somehow cooked the beet to extract the sugar. I cleaned my beet and cut it into square pieces to facilitate it's cooking. At first, after about 5 minutes of boiling, I thought the strange aroma must be coming from our own barnyard. But, no... the longer I cooked it the worse became the smell. Finally, neither I nor the dogs could stand it any longer and took the whole mess out the back door and threw it in the garden. My Mother's pan was ruined since it was stained and multiple washings hadn't affected the lingering odor. The entire backyard stunk as did, needless to say, the entire house.
The saving grace was that my father had tried the same thing when he was a boy and recognized the stench even as he drove into the yard. A man of few words, he only asked... "Not gonna try that again any time soon are you?"

My curiosity did get the better of me one last time when I retrieved a cube of the now cooled sugar beet to try a taste... surely it would be sweet. Unfortunatley for me, the revolting taste is the only thing that exceeded the previous stench. I haven't clue as to how sugar can be rendered from such a vile plant...

[ChuckFickens]

Try your experiment again, but roast them next time :)

[Clanad]

Naw... you do it Chuck... One smelly house a life time is enough!

[craft1948]

we used to live near the now demolished beet factory in York.......they used to process the beet between I think November and March each year...........the stench given out was disgusting.....

[wildwood]

Loved the story Clanad. I shall view putting sugar in my coffee/tea in a different light now.