Not that different to what you're already doing, just use straight vinegar to totally cover your cooked beetroot. You can add flavourings to suit yourself. My Grandmother used to use allspice and sugar. A sterilised airtight bottle is always a good idea, but not as important with vinegar as it would be for other preserves. Leave at least a week or so before using........Cheers, Dee.

Hi NIck, What tommy did you grow to 340gms? Love homegrown beetroot. Jealous. :)

I've got beaut recipe for beetroot chutney somewhere - as soon as I shake off the family I'll look it up for you - goes well with everything! You can leave them in the ground a bit longer and even if they get big, they are great for juicing. Grub - beets grow like weeds here - I'd expect them to grow in Syndey OK. I am about to put another couple of rows in and the picking time is about 40 days, so a great allrounder for filling in gaps. Cheers Linda

Found it - filed under C for Beetroot! BEETROOT CHUTNEY ( THE FORMATTING ON THE FORUM IS RS!) 1.5 kg beetroots, peeled and chopped into fairly small pieces 3 granny smith apples peeled and chopped 2 oranges, peeled and chopped 1 cup brown sugar grated lemon rind and juice of 2 lemons 1  2 cups red wine vinegar ( or malt) Spice mix chopped red chilli  1 to each 1 kg or to taste or ½ tsp Kashmiri chilli ½ tsp cumin ground ½ tsp coriander ground ½ tsp cinnamon ground 4 cloves garlic Boil until thickened and soft but not mushy- put in sterilised jars and seal. I have some three year old stuff that is still good - in fact better for keeping. Keep out of direct sunlight though and it will retain a lovely glossy colour. This is also nice if you use a Baharat spice blend  I use this recipe for Tagine cooking and used it a couple of times to make a fresh beet Tagine ( Adjust qualities to suit. ) ½ tsp ground allspice 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper ½ tsp ground coriander ½ tsp ground cloves 1 tsp ground cumin 1 tsp ground cardamom ½ tsp ground nutmeg pinch of ground cinnamon ½ tsp red chilli Linda

If I pickle 'em, it's what you did, but with a few white mustard seeds added. Cheers.

Mum's pickled beetroot recipe is delicious (she's Russian and they know a lot about beetroot!) 1 cup vinegar (she just uses Cornwall's skipping girl vinegar I think), 1 cup water, 1 tablespoon of sugar (can add a little more), 2 bayleaves, few cloves, pepper. Boil all ingredients together, cool and pour over cooked beetroot in sterilised jars. Enjoy, Halina.

Thanks for the replies, the recipies sound great. just have to stand over the oven and cook :) think I might have to go South for the Summer. The beetroot variety that I grew was from Yates - derwent globe. just soak the seeds overnight for good germination. Still trying vegetable varieties and method to see what produces the best. the tomato was a 'cheats' version. a must have by one of the kids while shopping in the supermarket - grafted taurus. a grafted variety that has grown massive (over the 2 m stated on the tag) with a lot of fruit. in terms of production it rates high. I thought I was being adventurous this year and bought some packets of tomato seeds (amish paste and the seeds Don Bourke has been marketing) just to see if I could them to grow. After reading other posts on yeild and taste I think I had better change varieties next year. may have been bitten by the tomato bug.

Nick I am v. jealous of your beetroot! We ran out of space for it and since I'm the only one who eats it, I decided not to put any in. Re the tomato bug - watch out, it's very infectious, LOL, you'll catch it if you hang around here too much :-)

In Holland we eat the beetroot as a hot dish,cook, peel and slice, fry a lot of onions, then add beetroot, yum.

Detroit is a good none bolting variety and can stand crowding. Early Melbourne can be planted quite thick because they are good for using as baby beets - good germination. You can get white and gold beets; the gold I've tried - quite sweet, lovely flavout and none staining - good for cooking with other yellow gold veges like sweet potato etc. and also good with juices because they don;t have the strong 'earthy' taste that red beets have. Poorish germination. I'm going to try an autumn planting as soon at the dark of the moon comes around ( 28th ) and soak the seeds first. cheers Cosmic