It’s then purified and heated to make a syrup, which is also popular in many parts of the world. ![]() It’s hard to imagine how a big, bulky tuber like this one – each one can grow to an average of two to four pounds, sometimes more – turns into that intensely saccharine product that you can use to sweeten your coffee.īasically, the beets are sliced thinly after harvest and the juice is extracted. People in other countries like the Czech Republic still use them to make alcoholic drinks. Decades ago, they were also used in the US to produce alcohol, though that’s no longer as common. ![]() In 1944, during the Dutch Famine, people resorted to eating sugar beets and tulip bulbs, which might tell you a bit about how palatable they are (don’t worry, we’ll give you some tips on how to prep them so they’re tasty).Ĭommercially grown sugar beets are mostly used today to make sweetener. Laborers in Malheur County, Oregon were the only ones allowed to live outside of internment camps in the state because their work was deemed necessary to fill in for labor shortages. When Japanese-Americans were forced into internment camps, many internees worked growing and harvesting the economically important plant. Sugar beets reached the US shores in 1836, and the first commercial operation started in California in 1879.ĭuring World War II, the United States government was so concerned with the dwindling sugar supply that they encouraged farmers to expand their beet crops. With the end of slave labor in the West Indies, the European-grown crops gained a foothold and had become well-established by the 1850s. Napoleon ordered the planting of 32,000 hectares of sugar beets in northern France, and before long, there were factories in Austria, Germany, and Denmark.Īfter the fall of Napoleon, the demand for sugar beets declined as the trade routes were opened up, and cane sugar was imported from the tropics. During the Napoleonic wars, the English blockades prevented sugarcane from reaching France, and another source of sugar was needed. ![]() Humans first figured out how to isolate sugar from the root in 1747, when German chemist Andreas Marggraf demonstrated that the crystalized sucrose from beets was the same as that from sugarcane.įranz Karl Achard, one of his students, took the idea and ran with it, establishing the sugar beet as a commercial crop in Europe.īasically, we can thank him for the sugar beet industry and the availability of cheap sucrose in Europe and the United States.Īt the beginning of the 19th century, most sugar in Europe was obtained from cane grown in the West Indies using slave labor. The modern sugar beet was developed and refined in the 18th century from white fodder beets, which were common and less sought-after than the red type. This color and flavor difference comes from the fact that they lack betalains, which lend the red (or golden) color and some of the characteristic “beet-esque” flavor to the roots.Įven if you don’t plan to use them to make a sweetener, they can be used as fodder for deer, horses, cattle, sheep, goats, and other livestock.īut what about growing sugar beets as a garden veggie? Yep, you can do that, too! Sugar beets have a slightly sweet, bland flavor, a bit like a potato sprinkled with a little sweetener. They also differ from their relatives in that they contain fewer vitamins and minerals, and have a texture that is quite a bit tougher. They look similar to massive potatoes with a pointy end, as if a red beet tripled in size and turned white – perhaps it saw a ghost?Īs you’d expect from such large roots, these can take twice as long as table beets to mature. Unlike the majority of their more famous relatives, sugar beets are creamy white and usually much, much larger. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products.
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