Beautiful Beets!

Beets were always a staple around our house as I was growing up, especially for Sunday meals. Pickled beets were served primarily as an appetizer along with pickled okra, ripe black olives, and kosher dill spears. Even as kids we loved them. Now, I was probably an adult before I learned to enjoy cooked beets and it was only lately that I've acquired the taste for beet greens, but tastes change.

In past years I've planted Detroit Dark Red Beets and I'll take a short detour here before resuming.  I was wondering how did these beets get named after a city known for bringing us cars and Motown music?  Well, back before the turn of the century, Detroit was a leading producing area for seeds. This variety of beets originated there and took the name.  I was looking at some pictures of Detroit taken recently and shocked to see that the city seems to be shrinking.  The population has fallen from 1.8 million to 700,000 and many neighborhoods are abandoned and packs of wolves and wild dogs roam the streets.  I don't know the validity of the reports, but maybe nature is reclaiming parts of Detroit and it will once again be associated with agriculture.

Back on track now.  I have primarily, though, planted Bull's Blood Beets because I like the way that the leaves look:

Bull's Blood Beet leaves

Bull's blood beets produce beautiful red foliage and deep, rich, red beetroots.  This year is the first year that we decided to try another heirloom variety - Golden beets. I wanted to add the diversity of color to the beet mix.  As you can see by the leaves below, they greatly differ from the Bull's Blood Beet leaves that are solid red AND from the Detroit beet leaves that have green leaves with deep red veins.

Those beet leaves in the past was always fed to our cows, goats, and chickens. However, we've discovered and developed a taste for the beet greens and cook them along with the beet roots as a healthy delicious side dish.

Golden Beet leaves

I went out to the row of beets and pulled a few to cook as a side dish the other night. I decided to pull 3 of the golden beets and 3 of the bull's blood beets would be nice. They were easy to pull up out of the loose soil.  I broke the fibrous roots off the bottom and shook off the topsoil that clung to the roots and brought them inside.

Fresh-pulled beets

I cut off the greens and washed them and immediately the golden beets' color began shining.  I cut them in half to highlight the difference in internal color.  Wow - what a contrast!

I ended up cubing them and Tricia roasted them in the oven with some butter and garlic. They were delicious!  She steamed the greens with some butter and sea salt. They were gone in no time.  I was looking at ordering some seeds for next year and I think I'm going to try planting another variety called Chioggia beets next year. Doesn't the photo look interesting?:

Image Credit

While Tricia and I love beets, Benjamin's not a big fan.  Maybe he'd think that those taste like peppermint?