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fruit sweeteners | (Read 355 times) |
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rachael hamblin
Posts: 129
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April 13, 2008, 11:04:32 PM |
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I'm trying to figure out how our household could make our own sweetener from local materials and am wondering if there's a way to make a sweetener from fruit. I was wondering if apples might do the trick. Paul said he has heard of people making apple syrup, and even apple sugar. Has anyone here tried this or something similar (or with similar results)?
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paul wheaton
Administrator
Posts: 1331
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April 14, 2008, 07:38:16 AM |
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First, there is apple jelly and "apple juice concentrate". Two things that would definitely be a sweetener, but not quite sugar.
I tried doing some google work on this and didn't get far.
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permaculture.dave
Posts: 113
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April 22, 2008, 03:35:50 PM |
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I can't speak from experience, but I've talked to Doug Bullock about natural food stores and co-ops from the 60s and 70s. According to Doug the stores today are a whole different animal. Back then everyone was moving away from processed foods and sugar was anathema. Doug always talks about how huge fruit sweeteners were back then. Apparently all kinds of products were using fruit sweeteners instead of sugar.
Doug might mention it in a talk he gave on food and nutrition at the Iowa Ecofair back in 2006, but I'm not sure. You can download that talk from http://www.permacultureportal.com/network_resources.html (it's a good one).
Enjoy!
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rachael hamblin
Posts: 129
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April 28, 2008, 11:19:06 PM |
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Somebody mentioned sugar beets to me the other day, apparently you can grow them up here. After some poking around I found this recipe of sorts: "Scrub the beet well and chop it up into small pieces. In a large pan, cover the beet pieces with water and bring to a boil. Cook the beets til they are tender and the juice is extracted. Drain out the juice and reserve it. Boil down the juice to about 1/3 it's original volume. Let cool and scrape out the crystals. Boil the juice again, til it is all gone, remove the crystalized juice again. Your sugar will not be pure white and it may have a slight beety flavor, but it will be far superior nutritionally to refined sugar. Store our sugar in a jar with a tight fitting lid. Use it just as you would refined sugar."
Anybody tried this or tried growing sugar beets?
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paul wheaton
Administrator
Posts: 1331
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July 13, 2008, 04:20:27 PM |
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I've heard of lots of people planting stevia - anybody grown some and harvested some?
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Charley Hoke
Posts: 66
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July 15, 2008, 01:16:00 PM |
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stevia is on our list to grow, I have used it and was satisfied with it. However if buying it, compared to sugar it can be costly.
We have a natural foods restaurant in our area that offers it in little packets like sugar and the artificial goop.
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SueinWA
Posts: 303
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October 08, 2008, 07:35:32 PM |
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I read somewhere lately that the fresh leaves of the perennial herb Sweet Cecily (Myrrhis odorata) can be added to foods (like rhubarb) as a sweetener. Dried leaves don't work, they have to be fresh.
This was the first I heard about it, but I guess that's where the 'sweet' comes from in its common name.
I have some fresh seed if you would like some. Let me know.
Sue
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