letters to the editor

 

More Advice On Growing Sugar

I seem to remember, from decades ago, hearing that making sugar from sugar beets is a low-yield method. A great uncle of mine had a cane press like the one in the movie Sergeant York. He had adapted it to be powered by the engine that ran his country sawmill. A long, wide power belt and pulley wheels did what a horse or mule did to crush the cane a long time before. The juice was collected in buckets and poured into a vat where it was cooked down into cane syrup. That’s as far as I remember him taking the process and we all used the syrup for sweetening. Steen’s Pure Cane Syrup is just like that which he made up until the early 1960s. I wish I knew who wound up with his press and vat after he passed away back then.

Bob

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I think I’d rather keep bees. Stung a time or two is better than scalded with molten sugar if you’re not allergic. I can live with “long sweetening” – the opposite of refined sugar – for all my needs. Plus, the bees will give me wax for, among other things, making candles and waterproofing some items.

Anonymous