Harvesting Beets

We have been picking beet greens over the past month or so, mixing them with swiss chard, mustard, turnip greens, and brussels sprout leaves.  If you cook them down in a cast iron skillet for just a little bit, wow!  Great flavor and great for you, too!

If you go to the grocery store, you'll notice the toilet paper aisle is wiped out.  Same goes with disinfectant, bread, eggs, water.  One thing you'll likely not see people hoarding - BEETS.  No one has ever said, "There's an impending disaster coming.  Better stock up on beets."  And that's a real shame, too, because they are doggone delicious.

We plant two varieties - Detroit Red Beets and Bull's Blood Beets, planted on a 15 foot row.  The Detroit Reds are maturing first, so we've been pulling them up, peeling them, slicing them, and cooking them.  Tricia likes to pull a handful up for supper.

We like to pull them when they are just slightly smaller than the size of a baseball.  About half the beet root will be above the ground, so they're easy pulling.

A nice "mess" of beets for us is just four or five.  We'll eat the greens if they look good.  If not, the cows will gladly take them off our hands.

A mess of beets

We like them roasted.  Take a regular potato peeler and peel the beet root and then cube them into 2 inch chunks.  Put them on a baking dish, drizzle with olive oil and season with a little sea salt and pepper and roast them in the oven.  That's a mighty fine side dish for supper right there.  We haven't even begun to harvest the Bull's Blood Beets yet.  We have a bumper crop.  We will likely harvest and then can a bunch of pickled beets.  I love pickled beets.

Okay, I wasn't going to bring this up, but of course, you know I will.  The consumption of a copious amount of beets has a dirty little secret that you must be forewarned about.  How can I be diplomatic, civil and polite with this?  When you cut up beets, it will stain your hands dark red.  Eating beets will also stain certain things red.  Things that we don't like to mention in genteel conversation.  Looking down in the water and viewing bright red where you don't normally see it will give you quite a scare.  Many have observed this phenomenon and gone to the doctor thinking that they have colon problems, only to find it was just the beets!  Save your co-pay.  It's just the beets.