BEETS ARE IN!!!

This is the First Real Beet Crop I have EVER had!! I came home from a short one-week jaunt to Colorado with my DH, and pulled out enough beets from my beet bed to cook up in my two biggest pots.

I cooked them both up before dinner--we had to eat some right away, Of Course--and I subdivided my beets. The smallest and perfect ones went for eating, and the larger and imperfect ones were prepped for canning.

(The tops and skins went to my laying hens and rooster.)

I had read that if your beets get TOO big that they're tough. I had 5 that were the size of a softball after picking. NONE of them were tough. I sliced all of my beets for canning and made a sweet, pungeant vinegar-based canning "sauce" from the Ball canning book. I decided that in order to get them canning quickly I had better pickle them, because I've been hot-bath canning fruits and high acid vegetables for about 7 years now, and I know how to do that. The pickling sauce used cinnamin sticks and allspice--the ONLY sauce that I've used that smelled better was for watermelon pickles and that had lemons and cloves.



A N Y W A Y, I cooked up and pickled 4 1/2 quarts of beets this morning. I should be able to get in 2 more crops in 2011--TOTALLY YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!