How to make sugar

WeeGranny, put a note in your "pooter"s note book that will tell you when to plant. Picked up a planting guide last year that tells me when to preplant/etc. Very useful as like you, I often forget my seeds till a bit late. You can "extend" your growing time by putting your raised beds under plastic or glass. Saw pics of a way northern bud's "garden". He used old truck tires (and some 4'X4' timber beds) for raised beds(black tires are heat sinks) with just a piece of glass over them. Simple but it gives them another month of growing season.

 

Good ideas, -06! I didn't get any garden this year because I had to go to Scotland at planting season for a family wedding (and what a hoot that was, lol, which is what you'd expect when all those kilts and whisky get together!) By the time I returned, my daughter, who died in August, had become much worse and the last thing I was thinking of was the garden. I am hoping for good things for next year. However, I seem to have become much "older" and more feeble all of a sudden this year. I did do some gardening on the deck, in containers, but only green beans because she loved them so much. Unfortunately, she didn't live long enough to enjoy any but she had the pleasure of seeing them grow, as well as her beloved pansies.

So, I may only be able to do a few beets but I think it will be fun. Meanwhile, no matter how feeble I may get, I will always enjoy learning new things about gardening....one question though, would there be chemicals in the tires that might go into the soil when they heat up in the sun? Just askin'.

 

No sugar is not a need! As a matter of fact you'd be alot healthier without it. We haven't bought sugar in years. We use very little sweetener, just a little sorgum on a rare occation.

BWM

 

Wee granny
add Ontario Seed Company to your list, I got beet seeds from them, a friend grew them and said they were awesome.

BWM,
any secrets to the sorghum?
I have the seed, and have picked out a spot to plant it so it gets lots of sun
how about harvesting/juicing etc??

 

Oh I do realize that I don't really need the sugar! But at my age, I figure I should be able to indulge myself after a long, hard life, lol! I don't eat any sweet desserts to speak of, just have some sugar in my tea. And what is a Scot without her cuppa, eh? Might just as well climb into the box, pull the lid on and finish it all right there and then, haha! Anyway, I just thought it was another skill/ability that might be useful and should be learned while there is still time!

 

Hi cdn boy! Another Canadian, how nice!

Tacmotusn posted several links that give great advice on the whole processing procedure. (Thanks, Tacmotusn!) Post #17. I will certainly add Ontario Seed Co to my catalogue list and thanks for the suggestion. I haven't seen them listed anywhere before but I am always looking for good down-to-earth nurseries. Some of them nowadays are so fancy you'd think we all had English Country Homes to garden for!!!

All of these "forgotten" skills could be very handy...I think it is really terrific that we can all share our knowledge, sometimes things we have not thought about for years, but which may be very useful when that day finally arrives and TSHTF. And which should be practised NOW while we still can without pressure and stress.

 

To be honest I didn't even know that it's not to difficult to make my own sugar. I want to try it out because home-made products are always more special and taste better. Don't you think?
In my family there are some farmers, but as you can imagine, they have many modern machines, and everybody cares more about the machines than the animals..

 

Sorghum tends to grow best on new ground. For harvesting cut it at ground when the seeds are at the dough stage. Then comes the hard part you have to crush the stocks to get the juice out. You can find a old sorghum press if your real lucky that's still working (you might get sticker shock though). Then you boil the juice down into syrup.

BWM