Small Scale Beet Sugar Production Methods
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- čas přidán 25. 08. 2024
- An experiment in beet sugar production methods suitable for small scale farming. Conducted by Erik Andrus at Bound Brook Farm, Ferrisburg, VT.
UPDATE April, 2017: The experiment has created some great questions, but sadly few answers. Erik has moved on to develop successful small scale rice production at Bound Brook Farm.
Here is a short look at the rice harvest last year. • Vermont Rice Farming 2016 Subscribe to my channel for more videos about rice farming in Vermont as erik expands operations in 2017.
- Ken
As somebody who's familiar with different agricultural methods I couldn't help but notice how, even everything that can be seen in the background of the footage, is done. This guy is a master. Truly educated, hard-working, and someone who produces products at the finest level possible. I would love if he had a CZcams channel detailing every aspect of everything on this farm and collaborated with the other CZcams channels that do the same. That would be a remarkable educational experience for viewers.
@@GeorgeWashingtonLaserMusket I mean, GMO is good but not necessary. In Europe we have GMO banned and we still can keep high agriculture. OP told about learnig from him, not imitate him, most of us learn from elders but we can't be close minded and use this knowledge to improve our work for better.
@@Dekakura23basically all the gmo beet is is roundup ready resistant. it allows farmers to spray herbicide instead of other methods to remove weeds in fields.
Just the demonstration of old fashioned farming was fascinating. Hope you're still doing well in 2020.
You can juice and clean up the liquid before boiling. I have come close to removing all the beet flavor using capillary action to filter. Chemists call it Chromatography. It has the ability to filter precisely.
So my method I have used on alcohol as well and found the effect similar to sending it through a Brita filter. It just won't plug as easily but it removes most flavor.
To explain I need to first get you to see in your mind what you are doing. Place paper in water and it wicks up. Place that paper over a ridge and down and it will drain the first container. Imagine Newtons Cradle (a marble swing of 5 marbles held by individual wires where pulling back the first and letting it knock them send only the 5th flying on the other end). In the same way the molecules knock molecule by molecule each water molecule along. Other particles may hitch a ride but its only the water that is moving. So you get some filtration from one dish to the next. What I noticed was after 4 or 5 the beet taste was not noticeable and I hate beets.
So how to do 4 or 5 filtration in any sort of production way? I first used chicken waterers. The watering system where you turn it upside down and pour in a gallon of water place the lid on and the force of vacuum holds the water from pouring out till the water level goes down. Now I used coffee filters to drain from the waterer to a small tray which drained to another and another. A total of 4 trays and on the find a bucket is underneath catching the liquid. Once set up it takes a good 24 hours to work through. Of course the residual left behind is waste you can't keep the small amounts left in the container and the trays but the final bucket is fairly pure. Cost effective and doesn't plug like a filter would with impressive results but it is time consuming.
I'm liking your comment so that, if I get a chance to try this, I can find it again more easily :)
Great work Ian, I'd love to give sugar production a try and am not a huge fan of beet flavor either.
Honestly I'm watching this for when everything goes to hell and I need to produce my own sugar. Honestly this type of research is incredibly important because by researching the past we can maintain progress for the future by preserving milestones.
Probably easier to just stock up before SHTF, or did it hit already? :p
*Foreshadowing*
Oh u mean in November when Trump is reelected. Oh yes yes, definitely going to hell then. This will be perfect.
@tejas Ya! If you wait, it's too late!
Honestly, I don't think it's actually complicated, just tedious. Always good to know the past.
This was the perfect video! We planted some of the sugar beets this year along with regular red beets. My son just pulled one and was ready to make sugar. He loves sugar, so maybe if he has to work for it and develop a way to get it to taste good, he won’t eat quite so much because of all the work involved! He watched this video, and immediately went out to get a beet and find the juicer. Haha. Thank you!
Very interesting - reminds me of the love we used to have for farming when I was a kid in the forties.
Way to go it is great to see folks like you keeping our food in it"s natural form none gmo yeah your profit margin may be smaller now , you have my best wishes sir all the best :)
as a fellow geek, i loved your system. thanx
Thanks for explaining sugar production 1000x better than How It's Made
gosh theyre gigantic. great work
A pleasure watching
I'm very interested in your experiment, and you answered a question I had regarding using a juicer instead of the traditional cooking method. My question now is whether using a pressure cooker to extract the juice might be more effective than just steaming? I look forward to exploring your other videos.
Did you try the pressure cooker?
Oh, 'beet flavor' and juicers! I know all about that. I found out the hard way. I've always loved beets, so one time, a few years ago, when I got a juicer, I tried juicing some beets and then drinking the raw juice right away. It wouldn't go down. I almost couldn't swallow it, and I almost threw up. I could not drink any more than just that one swallow. There is something in it, and I've wondered if it might be oxalic acid or something. Whatever it is, it is so intolerable that you just can't drink it. I didn't find out whether maybe that would improve if it was cooked, or filtered, or something, I don't know.
I know this is an old video. I've been long interested in this in an even smaller scall.. backyard :) In any case, you probably know already, your neighbor state of Maine, in Aroostook County, a sugar beet planting in the 60's was planned to take place but understand the company pulled out so they just kept planting potatoes as usual. But, those pototo farmers were going to do it until the last minute so they may have some knowledge of it.
Hows the syrup at 8:59 taste? From sugar beets? How do they taste if they were chopped finely then teabagged and boiled with a black tea? Do you think it would be viable as a sweetener that way?
theyre about as high in sugar as grapes
Ah! Great video. Thanks man.
Wow, love your work. I'm doing the exact same thing. 1/4 acre sugar beets, 1/4 red mammoth mangel.
How did it go with the mangel & sugar beets?
@@hamadilawson7634 Not well. deers and pretty much everything else ate the leaves. I would have needed taller fencing maybe.
Beet sugar, makes great beer. That darker one, might give interesting flavors.
Perkunas T Yea, the next step is to find a cottage industry that works with bitter and sweet. Cheese? savory sauce? Liquor?
Beet flavor on beer? I... wuold like to see what that taste like
your emphasis on non gmos is limiting but respectable
I believe the focus on the video was more on the fact that the alternative keeps more varieties alive, and that theres people that have aversion to GMO and so, theres a market spot for it regardless of what you as a seller believe. Or at least thats what I interpreted, though thats my opinion so it might be a bit of projection
the only difference between gmo and non gmo is herbicide use. the real issue they have in this video is scale/industrial. for example the worse beets can be recrytalised and centrifuged multiple times with a machinery budget.
@@OsirusHandle youre confusing non organic and non gmo
@@theshuman100 the only gmo widely cultivated is round up ready. there is a tomato and some novelty crops. beets, corn, soybeans is just roundup ready. basically u spray herbicide everywhere and you lose less crops to weed competition
Very interesting. I wonder if the juicing method would be viable when supplying a distillery, since the distilled spirit is selected at different cuts or fractions to include or exclude particular flavours in the final product.
Great video can you post the link to the seed suppliers please
You might try adding a few filtration/centrifugation steps to process the crystalized molasses syrup, that's what's often done on a commercial scale to isolate the sugar crystals so it might help a lot in this case.
I read somewhere that if you peel them before processing that most of the beety taste is eliminated. Did you try using peeled beets for any of your experiments?
loved the video, i want to sugget the incorporation of mulch just to keep a healthy soil and if you can, some other plants to keep a healthy ecosystem. thanks for sharing your experiences!
We would like to measure sugar content of sugar beets with NMR. Just wondering whether to use the diffusion or juicer method to extract sugar.
As a small farm looking for multi use crop, go old school. Sorghum. Seed heads, leaves and pressed cane to the cattle. The cane juice cooked down to syrup, which of course can be used in place of table sugar in and on most foods.
,...the seed heads actually have a lot of uses, whole, ground into flour, kept for next years crop,..
What is the best way to express juice?
@@lydiahubbell6278 If you have the coin, buy a new press. After much looking I found an old press that I reworked. A web search for cain press will get you started.
holy crap they're HUGE!
I think they separate the molasses off before crystallisation, don't they? Do you know how to do that? Can I also ask how you made your clamp? What did you cover the beets with?
In the commercial setting they add lime and carbon dioxide gas to the beet juice, which causes impurities to come out of the solution and allow them to be removed with a filter. The filtered juice is than boiled to remove water until it's a thick concentrated syrup. When cooled, sugar crystals come out of the syrup. The mixture is then put through a centrifuge, which spins out and separates the molasses from the sugar crystals.
@@kovona Very precise.
I am wondering if using fired sea shell/oyster for slaked lime is cost effective, energy efficient with reduced carbon footprint than other alternatives to making lime solution.
Texan here looking to create a beat farm. Ty for this.
can you soak the juiced pulp to extract more sugar?
Interesting, if u steep the juice in hot water like u would the mash/diced beets then filtered it would that reduce the beety flavor as u go to crystallize it?
i gues the juser liquid will work good for ethanol production?
Why not put the juice from the juicer through a food grade filter first, before doing anything with it?
Adding this to my administration cheats book I’m writing for those inspiring to be isekaied
I was wondering about integrating beets into a variation of soil rebuilding.
Polyface ferments corn into deep bedding- they do this so pigs will come in and turn the soil. They also raise pigs outside and put them on pasture rotation. This helps rebuild the soil.
Could you sow beets into a paddock in order to encourage pigs to turn and service the soil?
What growing zone r u in?
Is their multiple times of fodder beats? Will they grow in zone 3.
Wow the way you said “gunnin down deer”……………
Could have used a close up shot of that beet lifter implement
any way for no-gmo no till??? sugar beets
You are helping people around the world
Thank you
are they edible if you boil them
i wanted to know as well. i have been getting into growing and eating beets. there isnt much info about sugar beets as table food. could i get non gmo seed and grow for myself. baker creek had a recall on there sugar beet seeds.
They are if you harvest them early and still tender. When they grow to the size in this video they get pithy and not very palatable. Your better off just growing one of the many heirloom varieties of beets available at Seedsavers instead.
Smuggled in? Gotten any visits from the department of agriculture yet?
Eso es ideal para pruducir Belgian Candy Sugar Syrup
Se usa para elaborar autenticas cervezas de estilo Belga
It's the red beet root I was interested in. I don't know how closely related they are.
And a link to that juicer!
Lime pulls the impurities out
The longer you wait to process them after digging them up the more sugar you lose because the root continues to burn its fuel source.
IDK… in Montana, sugar beets are a strong crop, resourcing a sugar refinery. Piles of beets are often left outside until hard frost, which improves sugar content as starches are converted. You bring up an interesting question! I wonder how a period of refrigeration or even freezing would shift up end product. Also the steps to remove molasses. I’m not ready to throw this one out.
Sir Where can I buy sugar beet seeds
I only eat organic beet sugar, fuck that corn shit!
How can I contact u
Hello friends.
Please upload your recent video with new technology..
Thank you sir.
funny the way he says, people grow these to "gun the deer down" lol. You mean hunting? Harvesting wild animals for meat? In Vermont and Upstate NY at least, I know hunting deer is great small scale, local, sustainable source of meat for many families. Most family's I know average 1-2 deer per year. The state does a pretty good job of managing the deer numbers by varying the number of tags that are given out to each family based on factors like the naturally occurring winter die offs caused by starvation.
Is he giving short shrift to bow hunters?
ToddtheWadd I laughed when he said that but then went on to say, “I had these beet seeds ‘smuggled’ in from Scotland.” So he’s against “murdering” deer but fine with smuggling/illegal trafficking? I’m loving the confusing irony.
Can sugar beet be grown in East Africa
Maybe in the cooler mountainous regions. In place where it is too cold to grow sugarcane and maize.
R.H. Shumway's is owned by Monsanto. Try Baker Creek next time.
Excellent suggestion! Thanks.
Also, put your rows against the slope, not with the slope.
Did you discover one that could be used to produce table sugar? What does industry do to remove the beety flavor so it won't be so "in your face" lol?
jksatte KEN FRENCH- can you answer this question? What can be done at home to get sugar that is not so "beety"?
jksatte www.sucrose.com/lref.html
theuglykwan
Wow, thank you. I wonder if this can be done on a home based family level? Janice
jksatte I saw how complex that was and quickly gave up. lol But i am guessing there must have been simpler methods in the past before it got so complicated.
theuglykwan
Same here lol. I knew I couldn't manage that lol. Thanks, we will have to continue our search lol. Janice
Thank you for not using pesticides🙏🏽
Soooo, I'm hearing that he doesn't like GMOs.....
You might have made a better sault lick
A bit disappointed to hear the fear of 'GMO' when the issue is with corporate predatory business practices rather than the actual method of genetic modification. All of our beloved agricultural crops are the product of genetic modification by means of selective breeding (maize, apples, tomatoes, potatoes, beets, etc. are not remotely 'natural'). There are many good reasons why we shouldn't rely on predatory companies like Monsanto, but an irrational and unscientific fear of what we do not understand shouldn't be one of them.
(Otherwise the video was very enjoyable and educational)
You sir are my bero. Monsanto's needs yo go away
MACHINE-GUN DOWN BAMBI!
hey am from India.
how can I consult you?
Beta seeds
who needs sugar any way
"Gun them down"? It's called hunting.
Keith ...you cannot feed the world with old methods....what you can do is give mankind work...by having many farmers instead of a conglomeration owning all farms....and then let mankind feed themselves by the food they grow and sell....it's a good solution to mankind's food situation and ecological too...
That field is a mess.
"...so they can gun them down." Bye bye
You loss me at your hunting comment
Your soil is dying. older is not better. Newer ways of farming are much better. Check out gabe browns farm.
JFC you smuggled in seeds and bypassed customs? Thumbs down just for that idiocy.