Somebody has a sweet tooth. Actually two somebodies. I'm afraid I've created a couple of addicts. Let me explain. I was reading about how in the past, old-timers would grow root crops such as turnips, rutabagas, and beets to feed their livestock throughout the winter when there was no grass. I wanted to mimic that concept so I planted a lot of turnips and the girls (Daisy & Rosie) line up at the fence for their turnip fix every time I set foot in the garden. Well, if cows can beg, these do, but now mostly for something else.
I read about an old heirloom beet variety called the Mammoth Red Mangel Beet that they would plant specifically for this purpose. This beet will grow to enormous proportions. In a 1940 Farmer's Almanac I read, it said that yields run up to 50 tons to the acre! Can you imagine? So I ordered some seeds and planted them this pas fall. Here is a photo taken Monday afternoon of the greens from a few of them below:
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| Mammoth Red Mangel beets |
In this photo you can see the enormous beet growing out of the ground. These things are said to grow to be 20 pounds! I'm not going to let them grow that big as I need the row for planting corn and potatoes. This is in the Swiss Chard Family so I'm going to try eating the leaves myself.
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| Just beet it! |
I pulled one out of the ground and have put my foot against it for perspective. When Tricia saw this picture, she couldn't believe I was going to post this and show people. Crocs with socks - how un-cool and certainly unfashionable. Fortunately, the fashion police weren't patrolling on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm or I would have surely been incarcerated in GQ or Esquire's solitary confinement cell.
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| A mammoth Red Mangel Beet and Kyle's ugly feet |
I brought the scale out to the garden to weigh this bad boy up.
Almost 5 pounds!
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| 4.75 pounds |
I took out my Leatherman knife and cut the beet into disks for the cows to taste, wondering if they'd like it. Notice how the Red Mangel beet is red on the outside, but white on the inside with slight rings.
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| Bite-sized (for a cow) beets. |
And here are the girls patiently waiting to try the beets to see if they like them.
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| Daisy & Rosie |
Rosie was more aggressive and got the first one. I like the look on Daisy's face - "Hey, you ate the whole thing?!"
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| "I think I like this beet!" |
4.75 pounds of beets were consumed by two cows in a skinny minute. They absolutely loved them. I thought they went crazy for turnips, but that was nothing compared to their utter delight in eating these beets. When they finished, they were standing around like they wanted more. So I went and pulled up another one.
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| Another mammoth red mangel beet tipping the scale |
Whoa! 5.25 pounds! So we're averaging 5 pounds per beet.
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| 5.25 pounds |
Being that the cows were very piggish with the first beet and wondering how in the devil I'd do the Heimlich maneuver on an 800 pound cow, I halved and quartered this beet. Since I saw how much they enjoyed it, I cut off a little piece for myself and ate it. You know what it reminded me of? Have you ever taken a pocketknife and sliced up a piece of a stalk of sugar cane and chewed on it? I tell you it was just like it. No wonder. Down here in South Louisiana they grow sugar cane for making sugar. In other parts of the fruited plain, they grow beets for the same purpose.
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| Sweet Beets |
This time I made sure that Miss Daisy got a piece of the beet first.
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| Daisy's turn |
After they wolfed down that beet, totaling 10 pounds of beets(!), I had to bid them farewell so that we can ration out the remainder of the row. Look at them how pitiful! Rosie is sticking her tongue out wanting more. Those gluttonous bovines.
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| "Please give me more. Please, please!" |
I'll read up on saving beet seeds and figure out how to save the seeds from one of these beets and replant some next fall/winter as the girls have let me know they like them. Mammoth Red Mangel Beets. Daisy and Rosie's weakness.
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