Another Use for a Beet Bumper Crop

We planted three varieties of beets this past fall: Detroit Red, Bull's Blood and Chioggia.  Chioggia is an Italian beet that is white with red stripes and resembles a starlight mint when cut.  We had such a bountiful harvest this year, we don't know what to do with them all.  We've given some away.  We've eaten roasted beets on the regular now for months.  We have a bunch of pickled beets in pint jars in the pantry.  I had a work colleague about 10 years ago who was a missionary in Ukraine, and she shared a recipe with us for Borscht that she got when over there.  That's a good use for beets, too.  

Meet the beets.  The one on your left is the Detroit Red beet and the one on the right is the Chioggia.  The bull's blood beet was unavailable for the photo shoot.

With the main ingredients waiting in the wings, let's get started with today's novel way to use up a bumper crop of beets.  We haven't made this in a few years.  We're making Beet Kvass.  This beverage originated in what is now modern-day Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.  We're using a recipe from the Nourishing Traditions Cookbook by Sally Fallon.

So what is beet kvass, you might ask?  It is a healthy tonic that is fermented.  It helps the liver to detoxify your blood.  It is packed with probiotics and aids in your body's digestive process.  So let's make a batch!  It's easy like Sunday morning.

First get three good sized beets and cut them up into chunks.  Put them in a half-gallon Mason jar.  Pour a quarter cup of whey over the beets in the jar.  Add one tablespoon of sea salt to the jar.  Finally, fill the jar with filtered water and stir thoroughly.  Cover the jar and sit at room temperature for 2 days and then place in the refrigerator.

This is what our beet kvass looks like.  It is not as red in coloration as prior batches have been because we used a chioggia beet along with the red beets to make it, but it still has a nice red hue to it.  

I poured myself the first glass this afternoon.  Good stuff!  You're supposed to have 4 ounces of this each day.

Another good way to make use of a great beet harvest.  But wait!  I just thought of another that we haven't thought about yet this year: Making Red Velvet Cake with beets!  That's next on the agenda.

Bumby Beets Salad

On a daily basis we're harvesting beets, roasting them and eating them pickled.  We even tried eating them raw.  We plant a variety called Bull's Blood, because of their red leaves.

They are nice-sized - they feel about the size of a baseball in the palm of your hand.

Growing up, on Sundays after church, we would go to my maternal grandmother's house for lunch.  We called her Bumby.  We'd gather in the formal dining room with the entire family there, say a blessing over the meal and then we'd feast.  One of the things we'd have is something that we call "Bumby Beet Salad.  Here is the recipe below:

Tricia has already prepared the beets according to instruction in the photo and now she's shredding the lettuce.  All the ingredients like red onion and tomatoes (other than the mayo and seasonings) are there with the bowl.

The beets and other ingredients are added and now the salad is tossed to mix it all up.

The final thing is to add the mayo.  I'm usually not a big mayo fan, but it is necessary in this recipe.  Once it's all mixed up, it makes a mighty fine salad.

Bumby Beet Salad.  With a bombastic bumper crop of beets, we'll be eating this a lot in the upcoming weeks.  You ought to give it a try!

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. 

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?