decoding sugar. homemade knowledge.

Can you tell the difference between turbinado sugar and sucanat? First off, what is sucanat? And what's the deal with coconut sugar? Fad or friend? Is there a difference between cane sugar and sugar beet sugar? So many sweet questions! Throw molasses, honey, brown rice syrup, and maple syrup into the mix, and you've got a motley crew of sweeteners to choose from to stock your whole foods pantry. So let's lay these sugars out, clean and simple, and dig into the big bag of sugar and its saccharine rise into our modern culture. 

Sugar is an organic substance created by plants (and bees help out too) rather than a mineral substance, like salt. It has been enjoyed by creatures for millennia in the form of fruit sugars and later on in the form of honey, which has been used by humans for over 20,000 years according to cave paintings. Humans have found complex ways to alter sugar, and today we have an overwhelming diversity of the sweet stuff. 

There are many variations of sugar defined by the molecular structure, the source, and the refining process. Sugar occurring naturally in fruit (fructose) and milk (lactose) are called natural sugars, while added sugars are just that; added to a product to increase the sweetness. There are natural caloric sweeteners, like honey and maple syrup, which contain trace minerals and have different effects on the body than the standard granulated sugars. 

salt crusted new potatoes. homemade eats

We were weeding our four beds of onions today and came across some volunteer potatoes that we had let grow amidst the onions. The plants were big, and we pulled them out along with two to three small bright potatoes. Just by weeding a few plants out, we got about three pounds of red, fingerling, and dark purple potatoes. They were beautiful in the dark soil, and so exciting to harvest.

Harvesting volunteers is so gratifying. Its almost a "free lunch," since there was no planning or maintenance involved to grow the food. And we make lunch from them. We like to keep some "wild" in our farm and garden. It often surprises me on how much life overflows without too much human control. There is so much food out there just growing on its own, if only we are there to see it.