201. Please Leave a Message After the Beet

I've been slaving in the garden and the kitchen -- from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. yesterday. My back and feet ache, the beds of my nails are blackened, I'm hot, and I missed yoga. But it's all worth it for the beets. 

Here's my family pickled beets recipe:

Pickled Beets

6 lb. beets (not counting the leaves in the weight)

(Note: My aunt's original recipe, which I printed in the blog previously, said "2 lb." of beets. That just can't be right. I had much more than 2 pounds yesterday and got 7 pints. I didn't weigh the beets, but I feel like it has to be at least 6 pounds.)

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Syrup:

2 c. apple cider vinegar or white vinegar
2 c. water
2 c. sugar
1 lemon, sliced thin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon Mixed Pickling Spice (available in the spice section of your supermarket) placed in a muslin bag (the muslin bag is very important unless you want to get unpleasant crunchy things in your mouth when you're eating your pickles...)

Cook the beets.  To cook: Cut the leaves off with about 1/2 inch of stems left on. Leave the skins on.  Boil the beets 'til tender. Drain off hot water and let them cool until you can handle them.  Then take a little paring knife and cut off the tops and the bottoms. The skins will slip right off in your hand. Discard the skins. If the beets are small, leave them whole.  If they are large, slice vertically or horizontally, or cut in chunks to suit your mood. 

Put clean jars and lids in a large pot of hot water and keep hot until ready to use, but do not boil. 

Combine all syrup ingredients, bring to a boil, and boil for 5 minutes.  Add cooked, prepared beets to the syrup and simmer for 15 minutes.  Remove lemon slices and spice bag. 

Pack beets in hot pint or quart jars.  Pour hot syrup over, bringing the liquid close to the top (with about 1/4 inch headspace).  Put on lids and screw bands; tighten.  Allow to cool. 

I like to let my pickled items cure for a few weeks before serving, and pickled beets are best served chilled. 

This recipe makes about 6 pints.  I squeezed a 7th out of it because that's how many beets I had.  I had to make a little extra syrup to pour over the 7th pint. It doesn't seem like much for the amount of beets I started with and the amount of work I put into it, but next winter I will have forgotten all that. I have enough beets still growing to result in at least two more batches like this, so that by the time winter rolls around, I'll have quite a nice little store of these pretty, delicious jars, and enough to share a few as gifts. The remaining beets needed to be thinned out so they could have room to mature. I always plant many more than I think I'll need, because I practice this sequential thinning technique, using the ones I harvest as I go along.

Comments

[cari]

So. Jealous. My beets are still just skinny little purple sticks, like stunted carrots. I'm hoping they'll fill out, but I'm afraid our weird spring may have stunted them permanently. I'll have to buy some farmer's market beets to follow in your pickley footsteps.

[Barb]

Yum, those look great! I don't understand why I didn't like beets when I was young. Now I love them!

[Kelli]

Great minds think alike. I just canned picked beets to enter into this year's NJ State Fair.

[Robin]

What a beautiful color!

[Manise]

Awesome beet photo! Mine were planted late but are coming along. I planted the 'Cylindra' variety which are long like French Breakfast radishes. Won't have to thin many as I planted at regular intervals and had 100% germination rate. Speaking of germination. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my 'Bright Lights' swiss chard seed from 2000 also had almost 100% germination rate. I wanted to plant some and was lazy to order more and did a wee 'speriment- all sprouted within 5 days. Just goes to show you , you can save seeds and as long as you store them properly they last a very long time. Thanks for the pickled beets recipe!

[Sue]

Mmmm. I'll have to hit up the farmer's market for some beets. I'm the only one in my house who will eat them, so my pickles will be mine mine MINE!

[Susan]

That color is fantastic! I wonder if you could use the left-over juices to dye up some yarn?

[carol]

Yum! I just planted more beets yesterday (before the rain). I'll have to save this recipe for another 60 days. Have you done a second sowing of anything yet? I've just put in more carrots (first sowing yielded about 5 carrots), more peas, more lettuces and the beets. Spinach is to go in (hopefully) today.

[AmyP]

Oooh, yum. (Wishing it was lick-o-vision)

[margene]

After eating grill beets this weekend, I'm very envious of your beautiful jars. Think how much you'll enjoy the red orbs of loveliness this winter when you can't find a single beet anywhere.

[Carole]

I lurve lurve lurve pickled beets!

[CindyCindy]

My beets never make it the jars. We end up cutting them and roasting them with onions (and whatever else we can find) and eating them hot, cold, whatever.

[Vicki]

Mmmmm. Those look wonderful!!

[marianne]

Your beets are Beauties. I'm thinking I need to try the beets again...

[sandy]

"WE'VE GOT BEETS!"
The photos are gorgeous, the recipe sounds yummy and the title made ma LAUGH!
:D
xo

[jessica~]

Good lord woman! That is a lot of beets! You deserve a back massage!
I looooooooove beets. That is one of the reasons I wanted to garden in the first place. YUM!

[Roxie]

Those ruby red jars look like Christmas ornaments. Bravo, you wonder woman, you!

[Sharon]

Norma, you are my canning "idol!" All your garden and cooking photos are so beautiful! I've had 5 lbs of sugar and fruit pectin sitting on my counter for 2 weeks in the hopes of making blueberry jam. But the lure of the beach and 90 degree weather here in NJ has kept me from canning.
I will live vicariously through your lovely blog!

[Diane T]

Gorgeous color. I want a beet-colored sweater.

[Cathy-Cate]

So lovely. I used to hate beets as a kid but now I'm a convert.

My father, a good German, l-o-o-v-e-s pickled beets. Maybe I'll try making a batch for his September birthday? When we had a vegetable garden, growing up, we pickled beets and that was one of his favorite things. I bet I could get some really good organic beets at our farmer's market.

I could use a reusable-type tea bag for the spices, yes?

Glad you had a good birthday after the scary part. I had a similar experience once when, as a college student, I fell asleep in the early evening in my city apt. and woke up to fireworks (apparently some gala opening, it wasn't as though it was July 4th or anything where you'd expect them). Apparently the sound, light, and shaking had caused me to dream about nuclear war (no lie) and that Minneapolis was being bombed. I woke up the most scared I have ever been from a dream. Took a while to get over that one.

[Cheryl S.]

Yum! Beets! Give 'em to me fresh or pickled. I just wish they didn't turn my pee pink.

[Ryan]

Funniest blog title EVAR.

[Jenn C.]

Just to clarify - do you further boil the jars of beets after you fill them, or is the hot jars & boiling syrup enough to heat them to a safe temp?

I'm a canning neophyte so am not sure if it's a step that is not needed, or if it's so obvious that you didn't put it in.

They are so beautiful.

[Helen]

Yum!
Beets are so sadly overlooked.

[claudia]

So pretty, so beety. Mine are still just roots, but the greens were already delicious.

[Cookie]

Mom?!

I really hope someone made/bought you a lovely meal after all that work. And a couple of glasses of wine.

xo

[Rebecca]

Wow! Your beets are so lovely! Makes me crave them even more and that says a lot coming from someone whose eaten them daily for the past week :)

[moiraeknittoo]

I have to confess - I've never eaten a beet. Ever. *hangs head in black, black shame*

[Mary Beth]

They are gorgeous! Pickled beets are so timeless. I love roasting them too, but pickling them is as old as time. Great job!

[Kristin]

That takes me back! My very first job was as a tour guide/living history demonstrator at Watkins Woolen Mill State Historic Site, and we spent a lot of time pickling in our 1970's summer kitchen every year. The beets were by far my favorites!

[Lee Ann]

Crap. I missed your frickin' birthday.

Happy happy happy several days after your birthday day... :-)

Big hugs to you, sweetie!

[Angie]

Beautiful beet post, Norma. Happy belated birthday.

[Julie]

I hate beets. My mother used to serve them at every freakin meal when I was growing up since my grandma grew and pickled them and hated to eat them herself so gave them to my mom. Ugh. But very pretty colors.

[Kristen]

Oh man! Now you've got me craving Georgian beets...