Sugar Beets

Apparently sugar beets are a big crop in the Longmont, CO area.  I noticed them loading some trucks full of sugar beets on my way to and from work and my curiosity was piqued.  What was this mysterious vegetable that wasn't sold in supermarkets or farmers markets?  Did it really taste like sugar?  Why was it so huge?  Did it taste like a beet at all?  My obsession with trying new ingredients took over and lets just say that I "obtained" a sugar beet, which is pictured below.  It was about one foot long, but I forgot to weigh it!

 After peeling and cutting, the vegetable looked a lot prettier and less intimidating:

I looked for recipes online and most of them suggested that sugar beets were too bitter to eat plain, but could be turned into a molasses-like syrup by chopping them finely and boiling them in water.  I used the food processor to grate the sugar beet into shoestrings:

 I tasted the beet at this point, and was shocked to find that it was pretty tasty!  Imagine a beet crossed with daikon radish, or something else very crispy, and infused with a strong sugary sweetness.  I think they would actually be pretty nice sprinkled over a savory salad.  I saved a few spoonfuls and nibbled on them as the day went by.  The shredded beets and some water went into a pot and I put them on the stove:

Once things started boiling I simmered the mixture for about 90 minutes, until the vegetables were soft and the liquid was sweet:

Then I filtered out the beet strips and did a second filtration through a coffee filter to remove the last few particles.

After filtering I reduced the clear liquid to a thick syrup, which took around 30 minutes.

This is the syrup that I obtained (I know it is a little scary-looking).  It is in a 1 cup canning jar, so obviously there isn't a lot of it!  The flavor is good though - not really like molasses...closer to the sweet liquor that you get from malted barley when making beer.  Perhaps this will be a good ingredient in some fall-themed cocktails...

I think it would be pretty hard to argue that sugar beets are a more economical source of sugar, given the low price of cane sugar.  But, it was fun to get acquainted with a new vegetable.  Does anyone reading this have recipes for sugar beets or experience eating or cooking with them?