Sources of sugar…

In an effort to be more sustainable we have been looking into various ways of producing sugar or sweeteners on our own property. Bee hives are illegal in our city. My in-laws live on 75 rural acres nearby which makes having bees a possibility but a bit inconvenient. Other sources of sugar include processing sugar beets or making maple syrup. Again the syrup would rely on trees on my in-laws property. Making syrup is a pretty time intensive process. I have only read a little bit about making sugar from sugar beets but it also sound fairly time intensive. So, we don’t really know what is the best option for our zone 5 climate and limited knowledge of all of these processes. I suppose if our ancestors figured it all out without the benefit of the internet and eBay for supplies and information then we can as well.