Subterranean sweet treat blues

What do you say when you've run out of ways to say "sugar beet"?

Michigan is the U.S.'s fourth-largest grower of this subterranean sweet treat, processing more than 4 million tons of beets every year, according to the state Department of Agriculture.

While we're at it? The need to explain a pun, as in the sugar-sugar example above, should be considered a sign from on high that the pun belongs on the compost heap of history. Don't use it.