Keeping Beets

11 years ago

Picked 10 pounds of beets this afternoon. Trimmed the tops back to about 2 inches and am getting ready to wash them. After washing the dirt off of them, can I wait until tomorrow to cook enough to slip the skins off, slice and can them? Spent a good day on and off at the dentist's office, then the U-pick and I'm wiped out. I also got a crate of canning tomatoes and a few green beans. Thinking I'll wash off the tomatoes tonight then tomorrow when I get home, I'll get them through the strainer and work on the beets. Forgot about the jalapenos, long sweet peppers (Laredo?) and the zucchini I got at a farm stand and two dozen ears of corn I blanched and froze and now have to vacumn pack. Gee, my stamina is not what it used to be and I'm so tired.

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Comments (8)

kai615
11 years ago
I waited overnight before canning my beets this year (kids sidetracked me). They bleached themselves. I am told this is the only real adverse affect, although I am really really no expert on canning, however, no one has answered you yet. I have eaten a couple of jars and they don't taste any different, they just aren't as red as they should be.
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bcskye
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks, Kali615. I've always done my beets as soon as I pulled them, too. I think I'll just clean mine, let them air-dry and refrigerate then can tomorrow. I don't care if they bleach out a little.
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I agree, leaving whole cloves in the jars, tend to increase the clove taste. Fine if you like that, but usually I remove any before the liquids are added to the jars. Beet greens and their stems are great in a soup, and the stock could be ham hocks too. I like to slice 1/4 inch wide strips of the leaves. They cook up quite fast, and hold their shape if they are not over cooked too much. As mentioned, don't remove all the greens from the beets when cooking, as that tends to make teh beets 'bleed' too much, so they lose a lot of color. Once cooked, I cut off and dispose of that shorth length of greens left on the beets. Its usually where most of the dirt ends up. Also, when spooning the cooked greens out of the pot, try not to disturb the last 1/8 inch of liquid at the bottom, as that too can have some gravel in it. Like spinach, beet greens can get a lot of dirt in those leaves
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If interrupted for any reason then you reheat the foods back up to boiling before putting them in the jar. So if you had to stop to peel more then you process the jars you have already filled and capped, the rest go back into the ppt to wait for the rest to be peeled and heated. If company or phone interrupts you turn them off, then re-heat them back to boiling before filling the jars. If you have to turn the BWB or PC off before all the times has run then you have to start over with the timing. Only fill the number of jars that will fit in the canner at one time. Don't fill extra jars and let them sit on the counter waiting for the canner to be available. The point is, the processing time in the recipe is based on hot foods in hot jars going into hot water. Cold foods or cold jars or cold water means the processing time in the recipe would be invalid. It would have to be increased by who knows how much just to get the center of the beets back up to the processing temperature. So any interruptions in the process requires reheating the food and only then filling the jars. Ok? Dave
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Hi Cabrita, You can collect seeds from them. They are biennials, so yes, that means they flower in their second year. If conditions are right(or not right, lol) they may flower in their first year especially since you have a long growing season. Carrots grow umbel like flower heads and make lots of seeds. Most people forget they know carrot flower heads, not from their gardens, but from Queen Anne's Lace which is a wild carrot. If you have Queen Anne's Lace nearby flowering at the same time, you will need to bag your blossoms since they will cross-pollinate. Beets grow upright candelabra type flower stalks, and will make a good amount of seeds too. Beets cross pollinate from long distances away like 5 miles, so you will need to bag your blossoms if you wish to keep you seeds pure. One plant of each will give you more than enough seed for your garden. It is normally recommended to save from more than one plant to keep genetic diversity. If you are saving for certain characteristics though that doesn't matter. Remy
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Oh, Annie, you teach me more daily. The bunches of smaller beats with the pretty leaves have always looked more appealing to me but I never thought about the whole freshness issue, though I'm well aware that roots hold well and aren't always right out of the ground, etc. That explains so much! If they have perky leaves and stems, they're fresh and freshly pulled means tender and not dry. Cool. Bbstx, your initial description didn't appeal, really. I'm not a fan of borscht, but the recipe in full sounds good. I got hung up on "core fennel". I finally figured out it meant cut out the rooty center on the bottom, as usual, right? So glad to hear that things are getting better there and you got a day off! And so sorry to hear how far WF is from you! My friend who used to live in the hinterlands (not quite the edge of the world) of Texas was "only" an hour from the good WF, and they opened an okay one half way there. Plus, Texas has good produce and is near enough to so much Mexican export. Sigh. I think it's so odd that there's less the closer you get to where the food is grown (i.e., not in the paved over city). I've seen that kind of sweet potato too. :) Thanks for the picture. :)
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david52 Zone 6
11 years ago
Not so much canning, but I've kept fresh beets for months by nipping of the leaves about and inch from the top, snipping off that tap root, brushing off the dirt, then keeping them in a bin filled with peat moss, the whole lot in the garage.

In April, they'll start to shoot roots and stems.
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merrybookwyrm
11 years ago
Do you know what temperatures your garage averages while you store your beets, please?
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david52 Zone 6
11 years ago
Over the winter, it varies between 50 - 70F during the day and 35-40F at night.

Not to hot, not to cold :-)
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annie1992
11 years ago
I agree, they'll wait and they'll be fine.

I often go to the garden (I don't live at the farm yet, I still live in town) and pull beets. I bring them home and put the bucket in the garage overnight or even two nights. If I want to eat the greens I remove them, if not I leave them on and remove them when I get ready to use the beets.

If I'm storing them long term, I take the tops off but for a couple of days they keep fine, even with the tops on. My garage is not heated or cooled, so when it's 100F outside, it's 100F (or higher) inside. Again, that's not good for long term storage but it's fine for a day.

Annie
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cannond
11 years ago
"They bleached themselves"

So that's what happened to my beets. This was my first year growing beets and I was flummoxed by the lack of color once I cooked them. How soon after pulling must they be cooked to retain color? Does anyone know?
Deborah
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digdirt2
11 years ago
How soon after pulling must they be cooked to retain color?

Varies with the variety, the size, the storage temp, and if trimmed or not.

Trimmed and refrigerated Ace and Detroit's will hold color for 4-5 days IME before beginning to fade. Other varieties will begin to fade within 24 hours. The 'old farmers' rule says "the bigger the beet and the darker the color the longer they keep". Works to a degree but like most things picked and cooked within 24 hours works best.

Dave
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Keeping Beets

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kai615

bcskye
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Keeping Beets

Comments (8)

kai615

bcskyeOriginal Author

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bcskye
Original Author