[wchancey]

Yes but only a small amount. My wife teaches at a school and she wanted to this to take to school and show the class a sugar beet and for them to be able to taste the sugar that was made from it.

One of the kids brought in a sugar beet and she brought it home and we cut it into very small thin pieces and put it into boiling water at a slow boil for a long time , then removed the pieces and continued to boil it down until there was nothing left but a thick sludge on the bottom.

We let it cool and get hard then we gratted it with a fine gratter. And it was a brown very sweet sugar. She took it to school for the kids to see and try.

We searched this on the internet , I don't know how many ways you can do it but this was the one we tried , it worked but was a very long process though , and I don't know how they get it white.

 

[wchancey]

Michigan produces a lot of beet sugar. Pioneer and Big Chief are the two largest producers that I can think of we have sugar factories in Bay City, Caro, Croswell, and Sebewaing. You can't tell any difference in taste in beet or cane sugar.

In the fall in northern Mi there are roadside stands set up all over the place with farmers sells bags of apples , carrots , corn and sugar beets. All of these are used by the hunters for baiting deer.

If you have never seen a sugar beet , it is kind of an ugly looking thing actually pretty large. They look nothing like your garden variety beets.