"Staples" is pretty broad.

A lot of people (especially older folks) would consider that to be flour, meal, salt, pepper, lard, etc.

Potatoes (stored in a cellar), tomatoes (canned), corn (frozen), beans (canned),cucumbers (pickles) beets (pickled)---that's the basics for the upper south of the United States.

Anything else is "extry"  (extra).

If you can make pasta sauce and pesto, pickles and then cover the beans and corn, you're ahead of what most people are doing.  At least around here.

Yes, you can put up other stuff.

Will you benefit much from it?

That depends on your family and what you use regularly.

Down here it's sorghum.  In the deeper south they may be able to do actual sugar cane.

I grew up messing with sorghum and making molasses.

I will have to see what's on youtube.

I'm sure there are videos.  

To get a molasses product, the basic process is to "mill" the sorghum--which is done via a *drum roll please*.....sorghum mill. ...is to let it ripen, cut it, then press the juice out of it, then cook that down into molasses.

The mill is a series of heavy, geared drums (Ours were not large, but I'm sure they come larger than that old fashioned little mill) that sit upright and turn.   My uncle used a tractor to turn his mill, but the Amish use horses walking in a circle (the gears are what provide the mill's usable speed, of course)   Like an old fashioned wringer that sat on the side of a washer (if you're old enough to remember such an apparatus).  It just smooshes the stalk.   The juice runs out into the (large, somewhat shallow, flat) pan, which is cooked at a low heat.  I don't know the chemistry but I'm relatively certain that the heating process is mostly water removal, which yields a thick, dark, sweet product.

I'm assuming you've had molasses, and know that it has a very distinctive flavor.  It's not something you can use in place of a lighter sweetener.   Dried and ground (I don't know this process) it makes a great treat for cattle, to get them to eat what they might otherwise balk at.  (old corn, for instance, when you have nothing else)

So it's a very good thing to have around, but it's certainly not a total replacement for an all-around sweetener.  

I love molasses, and could eat it as a treat with butter (or not) on biscuits pretty much every morning.

But for man hours and productivity for a more generally useful all-around product, my guess would be that bees/honey would serve a homestead better.