Beet Sugar Making
From:  "cynthia brennemann" thornkell@charter.net 

You start by shredding the scrubbed beet and just covering with
water. Then you cover and simmer for about an hour. Then you remove
the beet pulp and squeeze it and press it to get all possible liquid
from it. The pulp is a great amendment for compost, or livestock
food.

The liquid should then be strained through a very fine mesh or
cheesecloth and simmered until it condenses by half, and then boiled
until conditions are right for sugar crystals to grow. Then the
liquid is poured into a pan and kept hot in an oven until crystals
start to form. Once the crystals have formed, the molasses part is
poured off to be used elsewhere, and the crystals are dried. It
takes a spinner to get all the molasses off. If you don't have one,
you'll have a raw, brownish sugar, which is still sweet and good, but
more strongly flavored. Give it a dry with hot air, and then package
it.

Beet molasses is not as good as cane molasses, by the way, but is
still quite good for use in further sugar production, microbe
growing, alcohol making, and livestock sweetening.


