Sugar Types

This week we will be talking about sugar types, not sugar substitutes, but real sugar. You can read my article on sugar substitutes here. You have granulated, brown, dark brown, confectioners, sugar in the raw, molasses, sugarcane, sugar beet, not to mention honey which is very high in sugar, yet bees don't put sugarcane in it.

What are the differences? Where does sugar come from?

Sugar Types - 12/26/22-01/01/23

Monday, December 26, 2022

The sun greets the cold earth this morning.

Hello and happy day after Christmas! We have been filling orders all day long and I had three customers come into the store. It is now 4:41pm and I am finally finding time to sit down and type. This morning started out at 28° Fahrenheit. It is now 63° and tonight it is supposed to get down to 30° so still below freezing.

Brendon pulled up a lot of dead plants. He took out all of the pole bean plants and more. He needs to pull up the now dead corn stalks. My poor zinnias need to be dead headed so we can save the seeds and those all need to be pulled up.

Brendon says there are a lot of cutter ants out back eating up our strawberry plants. You would think the ants would be safe underground where it is warmer for them instead of destroying more. He started killing them but it is a huge undertaking. When you poison the nest, instead of dying, they just pack up and move. We have battled them for over three years out here now.

I have been doing laundry in between orders and customers. We still have a lot of delicious Christmas food left. We had prime rib for lunch and it was so good.

I got most of the kitchen cleaned up early this morning from yesterday. When I went into my office, I noticed a leather jacket on my chair and realized that the man from church who was here yesterday left his jacket. (He had nowhere to go so David invited him here. We had never met him before.)

The living room is still a mess with boxes and gift bags. I need to clean that up this evening. I have already taken down two of the Christmas wreaths. I love Christmas and I hate to see it go so quickly. It just seemed as though there was no time this year to really get into decorating with all of the busyness we had at David's Garden Seeds®.

It got warm today, up to 64°. It felt so nice out in the sun but stifling hot in the buildings. They kept putting the heat up. I kept turning it down but then I would leave to go help a customer.

We dined on Christmas leftovers including prime rib for lunch and dinner. It sure was good.

As you saw by the title, this week we are talking about types of sugar, not sugar substitutes but actual sugar types.

David put something down in the septic tank because water is backing up out in the yard. Fun times. So we can't use the water or flush through the night. Hopefully, it works.

Sugar Types - Granulated White Sugar

First, sugar comes from juice from sugarcane or sugar beet. Sugarcane is a type of tall grass used to make sugar. It is grown in the tropical regions of the world. Sugar beets are plants with a lot of sugar in the roots of the plant. Sugar beets are grown in colder climates than sugarcane. Granulated sugar is refined to remove all of the molasses (liquid syrup) from it.

Of all the sugar types, granulated sugar is the one type that you most likely have in your home. You cook and bake with it, add to your coffee and tea, and sprinkle it on your breakfast cereal.

Granulated sugar dissolves well, especially in hot beverages. It mixes into batter well.

Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Here is today's beautiful sunrise!

I woke up at 6:01am and got some coffee. It is 31° but I think this was the last of the freezing temperatures for a while. I sure hope so.

My ear feels clogged this morning; otherwise, I feel fine. I believe it is the changing weather and allergies.

I watched a homesteading video where the person was talking about the FDA sending out census information asking every farm to complete an online form. A lot of farming practices have already been banned in the European Union which he talked about. If you don't complete the form, you can be fined. He said he doesn't know of anyone who has not completed the form, but who wants to take chances, right? Times are getting scary. Common sense no longer prevails.

We have not received a census request. If you think this is false, just go to the FDA website, just like I said about registering your garden with the government. When I wrote that article, some woman went off on me telling me that was not true, yet I got the information right from the FDA website.

This morning, I need to pay my utilities. With Christmas, it seems there has been no time to do the important things that need to be done. I also have a stack of doctor bills to pay from David's hospitalization that I need to file with Christian Healthcare Ministries and I need to pay them.

A few hours later and I got a lot of bills paid and some website pages built.

Purple Top White Globe Turnips are going to be harvested today from our garden. They will be for sale in our Farm Store for $2.95 a pound.

We have lots of farm fresh turnips grown right here on our farm. Come on out to the farm and purchase them.

We are harvesting fresh turnips today. They will be on sale in our Farm Store for $2.95 a pound. Also, we will have some turnip recipes on the website so you know what to do with them. It is currently 10am, 46° and there is a cold wind blowing out there so it feels much colder than it is.

Unfortunately, the turnip greens are not available. They were killed by the hard freeze we've had over the past five days. Everything on our farm is done by hand, not by machines so we are paying our people good wages to help us plant and harvest. David, Matt, and I do a lot of the work as well. It is labor intensive and not mass produced like commercial farms which is why the $2.95 per pound price may be higher than what you pay in a store. Also, no pesticides have been sprayed on them.

We pulled out the turnips and now they are clean and ready to sell.

We have a boxful of fresh turnips straight out of our garden bed.

All of the Amazon orders and all of the website orders have been printed, filled, and mailed. A turnip recipe page has been added to our favorite recipes page.

Late this afternoon, a couple came in to buy seeds with a gift card. This was our first gift card to redeem on the new system. It worked great! The lady said her co-workers gifted her our card for her birthday, $50! That was pretty generous of them. She was pretty happy.

By the end of the day it was 64° but the air still felt cold and it was windy. Tonight it will get down to 38°. Why?

Brendon deadheaded the zinnias. Tomorrow he will pull them up.

David is still not letting me wash dishes or do laundry but at 9pm, I got to take a shower. I sure hope whatever he put down the drain works because it will take me a long time to get caught up on more than two days worth of dishes.

Another Short Work Week

This week is another short work week because we are giving our team members this Friday off for New Year's Day. We cannot afford to take Monday off since we get a lot of orders over the weekend. Mondays are difficult as it is with so much extra to do. So if you are planning to come out to the Farm Store this week, you have today, Wednesday, and Thursday to do so. We will be closed on Friday, Saturday, and, of course, Sunday. We will open back up on Tuesday, January 2. I simply cannot believe it is time to welcome in another new year.

Sugar Types - coarse Sugar

Coarse sugar is used for decorating baked goods. The granules are big like the salt granules on soft pretzels. It is heat resistant so it doesn't melt like granulated sugar. I have not used coarse sugar but I have enjoyed it on baked goods that I bought. I don't know if you can buy coarse sugar in most grocery stores. I am sure you can find it on Amazon. They have everything on Amazon. We sell on Amazon so I am not going to knock it. (Yes, Jeff Bezos gets a lot of our money but he has a big platform which is why everyone sells on Amazon.)

Wednesday, December 28, 2022

Good Wednesday morning! I got up early and filed insurance claims for David's remaining doctor bills and the hospital bill which finally came in the mail yesterday. So those will go out in the mail today. Most of the seed orders are done. There are a few that the postage needs to be changed and Matt does that. He left to buy us all some lunch. Pastor Jerry is visiting and helping again today.

We all had Pizza Hut for lunch. It was good. Pastor Jerry left after lunch. The mailman came and just brought some junk mail. I got the replacement gift for David. The Perry Mason DVD set I got him had two season 4 to 6 sets and no season 1 to 3. So I let them know and they sent an all new DVD set. So tomorrow, I need to take the original to the UPS store in Pleasanton.

Tomorrow is our last day of work for the year. We will be closed Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and will open back up on Monday, January 2, 2023. Then it will be full steam ahead for spring seeds. We have already been getting quite a few three to five page orders for flowers and spring vegetables this week.

This morning, I got to turn on my dishwasher and my washing machine. Both are now going with second loads.Turns out the septic is still leaking so we need to get a professional in here.

I need to get my decorations taken down so I can celebrate Happy New Year with a clean house. I started taking some down this afternoon. I took down all three wreaths, the Christmas rugs, the throws, and the window clings. Tomorrow, I will try to get the rest down.

I had four customers at the store today in between pulling orders and refrigerating turnips. People are already getting serious about spring planting. I had several two to three page flower orders and some four to five page spring veggie orders today. Big orders coming in super early is awesome!

My sweet neighbor lady, Carolyn, made us some banana pudding this afternoon. I am sure that it had several sugar types in it between the actual pudding and vanilla wafers, plus natural sugar in the bananas. It was delicious.

Sugar Types - Sanding Sugar

Another one of the sugar types, sanding sugar, is not something you probably have in your pantry unless you decorate a lot of cookies all of the time. I don't have any and have never used it. This is a sugar made from course grains of sugar that has been pulverized into sand so you can decorate fancy cookies and cupcakes. You can buy this in craft stores in the baking aisle or in some nice grocery stores.

Thursday, December 29, 2022

My beautiful zinnias are now dead from the deep freeze we were in. They will come back. In fact, when Brendon pulled them up, I found snapdragons growing under them. In spring, the zinnias will grow, too.

My zinnias are now dead from the deep freeze we were in. They will come back. When Brendon pulled them up, I found snapdragons growing under them. In spring, the zinnias will grow, too.

Good morning. We have been adding new seeds to the website all morning and it is only 8:30am. It is warm outside, 63°. How is that possible when just a week ago we were freezing?

Matt has gone to take Lucy and Ethel to be groomed and to return some defective Amazon items to the UPS store. I need to get out there but I am still not ready for the day.

It got up to 75° today. Right now at 4:30pm it is 71°. It has been cloudy all day long. It will go down to 52° overnight so it has been a very nice day. I uncovered my baby snapdragons. So now we will have some in three different beds by the store. After Brendon pulled up all of dead zinnias yesterday, I discovered a lot of baby snapdragons were growing up under them. Interesting, right? I have not grown snapdragons there since June of 2021 when I pulled them up. The seeds are finally coming up.

Everyone has just left. We had no real customers come by today, just a family who stops by to say hi every few weeks. I spent most of the day adding products to the website, namely lots of bean seeds.

Sugar Types - Confectioners Sugar

Confectioners sugar is white sugar that has been ground into powder. It is good for making frosting as there are no granules to dissolve in frostings, glazes, pastries, and fudge. It is good to learn how to make your own frosting so you can avoid GMOs in your food. The already prepared cans of frosting at the grocery store have GMOs in them. So do the cake mixes.

Friday, December 30, 2022

And just like that, it is already the 30th! We are closed today but we will be here pulling seed orders and mailing them out. It is cold today. I thought 52° was much warmer but I am freezing.

I am eating some oatmeal and then it is outside to take care of all of the animals. Matt won't be coming in until much later which means I get to do it again.

I have been out in Fulfillment pulling and filling orders for most of the day. Unfortunately, I tripped over one of the metal displays that had been moved and I broke a toe. Fun and purple, it is so painful. Not the first time I have broken a toe...I just can't believe I did it again.

Our next door neighbor brought us a nice Happy New Year box of sugary treats made from all sorts of sugar types. It even had marshmallows and popcorn with chocolate drizzled on it.

The trash man came on time. Matt came over for a while. It is already 3pm and it has been cloudy and on the cool side for 73°.

Sugar Types - Brown Sugar

Brown sugar is made with processed white granulated sugar and molasses is added to it for a moister sugar that comes in light or dark. Obviously, the dark brown sugar has more molasses than the light brown sugar. Dark brown sugar has 6.5% molasses and light brown sugar has 3.5% molasses.

Saturday, December 31, 2022

The final sunrise of 2022. I was preparing food when the sun set so I forgot to get a final sunset photo...

Well, here it is, New Year's Eve! My toe is still broken and darker purple than ever. I felt it many times in the night and, of course, I hit my toe against a wall this morning. I am a klutz...Just call me Grace.

I went outside and fed all of the animals after feeding the dogs and cat in here. I just finished cleaning up the kitchen. David is outside somewhere. I have a lot of orders to pull. I am going to try to get Christmas out of the house today. I tried to take the tree down this week, but I cannot find the brand new tree bag I ordered and received from Amazon on December 6. So I ordered another new one and it should be here today. I have looked all over. David had the guys move a lot of my Christmas things out of the green shed. I cannot find it in there or in the new place where most of my Christmas decorations are.

I spent most of the day doing things here in the house and then for dinner, Matt came over and grilled steaks. I roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes, and cabbage steaks with olive oil and they were delicious. Svengoolie was a replay so we watched Blacklight with Liam Neeson and it was very good. Matt went home. We put in the Jeffersons and promptly fell asleep. We woke up and watched and fell asleep again. At 10:30pm, David decided that was enough. Happy New Year! LOL!

It got up to 78°. Matt took the plastic down off the animal houses. He probably should have left the plastic up...

There were some fireworks going off outside. We could hear them, but not see them.

Sugar Types - Turbinado Sugar

Turbinado sugar comes from raw sugarcane. It comes from the first pressing so it has more flavor and molasses in it. Turbinado sugar is the type that is in Sugar In The Raw. This sugar is partially processed and has quite a bit of molasses in it.

This kind of sugar is not meant to be added into cookies or a cake because the sugar does not dissolve into the batter like granulated or brown sugar. If you use it, your baked goods will have crunchy sugar granules in it. Not a good idea.

Sunday, January 1, 2023

Well, Happy New Year! Happy 2023. I was going to snap the first sunrise of the year and this happened:

Fog, complete fog, no tree, no sun, just fog!

David requested blueberry pancakes for breakfast so I made those and some eggs. David made bacon. It was all good. So much sugar this week. Sugar type was granulated sugar and then a sugar substitute for the Mrs. Butterworth's Sugarfree Syrup.

Pancakes on the griddle on this foggy Sunday morning!

After breakfast, I braved my way out into the fog to face the fog monster. I did not find him. I fed the fish and then went out back and took care of everyone else.

Happy New Year fog is at the front gate this morning!

My flock on this first day of 2023 enjoying breakfast. Three of them have been pecked again...Seems they cannot leave each other alone.

The seed orders have been pouring in all weekend so thank you to all of our wonderful customers and friends who have been supporting us. We will definitely be busy tomorrow. The USPS won't run since they are taking their holiday tomorrow.

Sugar Types - Liquid Sugar

Liquid sugar is a simple syrup made from water and granulated sugar. It is good to use in drinks because you don't have to worry about the granules not dissolving. Just boil one cup of water and one cup of sugar together, stirring until the granules are gone. You can actually buy this for use in your home or make it to add to drinks.

Molasses

Molasses is used as a sweetener by people. It is actually a by product that happens during the process of making sugar from sugarcane. It is also made from sugar beet but the molasses made from sugarcane is the preferred molasses to eat. Think gingerbread and gingersnap cookies. Yum!

Molasses is actually good for you. It has iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and phosphorus in it. Black strap molasses which is concentrated has even more. This type of molasses has been boiled three times. It is hard to believe that so many good things for your body can come from sugar.

Honey

Honey is made by bees for food for them. It is also delicious food for us and I have heard that it is the only food that will not spoil. They have found honey that is over 3,000 years old and it is still good to eat, sweet and delicious. Isn't that amazing?

Honey starts out as nectar from flowers that bees collect as they fly from flower to flower in our gardens. They take it back to their hives and deposit it. The constant wing fluttering of the bees in the hive cause evaporation and we are left with a real treat, honey! This is actually a simple explanation. I was reading about all that they go through to get the nectar. They don't take the dry pollen. They suck out some liquid from the flowers and carry that back to the hive where they give it to other bees. The other bees deposit it into the honeycomb cells where some of the liquid evaporates and then the sticky, golden honey is left. It is a fascinating process.

It is said that if you take a teaspoon of local honey every morning, you won't have bad allergy problems. Here in Texas, that is a real thing. I never had allergies until we moved to Texas and they started almost immediately. The air is dry and there are all sorts of pollen that bother me here like mountain cedar, ragweed, and oak. There is also mold which is not a pollen but it bothers me a lot. I think more people than not in Texas have allergies.

For information on sugar substitutes, click here.

Return from Sugar Types to Our Fourth Year

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