In the past I've had mixed results growing beets:
- Sometimes it gets too hot and dry too quick and they don't sprout.
- Sometimes they sprout, but then get eaten by woodchucks and other nocturnal garden raiders before they grow round.
- Sometimes they get eaten from below by voles, so that when I go to harvest what I think is a nice 2" or 3" round beet all I get is a leafy top with 1/4" of hollowed out root.
Hence, two full rows of beets just for me.
Well, guess what--this year nothing ate my beets! So they are all for me! All 100+ of the round red things. Or maybe it's 200+. I don't remember how long, exactly, the rows are. I do remember planting the beets out at 4" intervals. So, if the row is 25 feet, that gives me about 75 beets per row. And if the rows are 35 feet (I'm thinking they are closer to 40 than 30), that gives me 105 beets per row.
Anyway, I suddenly have a bumper crop of beets. So, in between all the other daily happenings and the Wednesday baking and Thursday farmers' market, I have been putting up beets. Pickled beets. Non-pickled beets. Lots of jars to wash, lots beets to cook and slice. Running the water bath canner. Running the pressure canner (and babysitting it while it processes, because I really don't want it to blow up and spew beets all over my kitchen).
It's worth it, though. Worth it when I see all those pretty magenta colored jars lined up in the cellar. Worth it every time, all during the year, when I open a jar and heat them up to go with dinner. Or for lunch; beets are good for lunch too. Sometimes I just eat vegetables for lunch. They are very filling if you eat enough of them :0)
Beets are incredibly simple to can. Plain old beets, the non-pickled kind, require just three ingredients (beets, salt, water) and a pressure canner. Basically you cook your beets, remove the skins, slice or quarter (or leave whole if they are small enough), and pack them in jars. For each pint of beets add 1/2 tsp canning salt and top off with boiling water, leaving one inch of head space. Put the lids and rings on your jars, put them in your pressure canner, and following your canner's directions, process at 10 pounds pressure for 30 minutes.
Done! You now have beets.
If you want pickled beets, they take a bit more work, but only because you need to add spices to your water before boiling it and adding it to your jars with the cooked beets. Pickled beets need 2 cups sugar, 2 sticks cinnamon (sticks, not ground), 1 tablespoon whole all spice, 1 1/2 teaspoons canning salt, 3 1/2 cups vinegar and 1 1/2 cups water for each 6 pints of beets. Put the sugar, spices, salt, vinegar, and water into a pot and simmer for 15 minutes before adding this liquid to the jars of beets. From there, put on the lids and rings and process in a water bath canner 30 minutes.
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