Beets? Are those even a real food? Well, I’ve never eaten them much either. My garden is there in part to be a prepper’s experimental test bed though, so I’m trying some things so I can share the results with you. Here are the results of this year’s Great Beet Experiment.
Here’s a beet, in case you’ve never met one. The beet itself is almost baseball-sized.
Why bother with beets?
Beets are a root crop. Potatoes are a root crop. Many people really like potatoes and know how to use them already. Why bother stretching to try beets?
Diversity. Remember the Great Potato Famine in Ireland that killed perhaps a million people between 1845 and 1852? The reason it was such a disaster is that the Irish (and/or their English landlords) found one great variety of potato and grew it almost exclusively. Add a fungus that likes that variety and weather that favors the fungus, and you’ve got a first class disaster on your hands. It’s important that a prepper be able to depend on getting food out of the garden.
Greens. Potato tops are good only for helping tubers grow. Beet greens do that, but are also good eating in their own rights. Better yet, you can pick and eat them throughout the spring and summer; they don’t bolt and get bitter as spring greens do in the heat.
Weather, soil, and pest tolerance. Potatoes can be finicky about conditions and prone to pests. Based on my trials, beets just grow.
Timing. You can dig new potatoes mid-summer, but you get a lot less food per square foot if you dig them early. You can plant a lot of beets then thin and eat them as they grow for an extended harvest without loss.
Despite a bad weather year, the beets just grew, in every soil type tried. The gnome may have helped.
But are beets any good?
Not all vegetables are tasty. Easy to grow but unpopular ones are particularly suspect. (I’m looking at YOU, turnips!)
The only reason I tried them in the first place is that the local Mennonite ladies grow them; and they know some things about getting food out of the ground, and about good food.
I was pleasantly surprised. Tastes vary, of course, but I found tasty uses for both greens and roots. Not “How can I not have been eating these all my life?!?” but definitely “Going to grow some more of these!”
Growing beets
I bought Detroit Deep Red and Bull’s Blood. Seeds were dead cheap at our local Mennonite store; less than half a dollar for a couple hundred seeds. I planted some early, then we got a surprise late snow in April. Seeing no shoots the week after the snow, I planted some more. They all came up; apparently they’re a bit slow to germinate but hardy.
I had some in the very good soil of my raised beds (filled mostly with composted manure and organic fibers such as shredded paper and leaves, with a little vermiculite). The rest went to the in-ground garden, which has been amended with some composted manure but it not as beloved by most species. Both spots grew very well.
It was a bad garden year, going from cold and snow early right to hot and dry. Beets didn’t care; just grew. They got watered when the tops started to wilt. The traditional greens crops such as lettuces had a much rougher time of it.
Cooking beets, the greens
The greens were first, because they sprouted so well I had to do some serious thinning. The leaves were a bit tough for my taste as salad greens (although a few small ones in the spring mixes were good), but not at all bitter or hairy (still looking at you, turnips!). I like them a lot briefly sauteed in oil, with a splash of lemon juice and sometimes some fake bacon bits added at the end. The thick mid-ribs take longer to cook, so I cut them out first.
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Sauteed in a little olive oil with a dash of lemon juice, the greens are good food; and very nutritious.
Cooking beets, the roots
As the roots started to grow I had to thin some more, and kept the small beets as well as the greens. Some net research told me they took rather long to boil or roast, so I popped them in my pressure cooker (Instant Pot).
The method is Easiest Ever. Twist off the greens, cut off the trailing bottom root, get most of the dirt off the root. If some are much bigger than the others, cut the big ones in half to even cook times; but in general cook for the largest size and they’ll all be ok.
Add one cup water and pressure cook. The softball sized ones take an hour if whole, the golf-ball sized ones under half an hour.
Let them cool a bit and the skins will slip right off. So easy!
Pretty red beets! There’s no hiding These veggies in other foods though; even their cooking fluid gets RED!
I like the beets just that way, sliced up. They don’t taste as bland as potatoes. You could dress them in all sorts of ways though. Rosemary was particularly nice.
Going home: pickled beets
One can also let them pickle in a vinegar solution, which I really like, and will let them stay good for quite a while in the fridge, or they can be pressure canned. It’s a forgiving pressure canning target, since the vinegar will keep microbes from growing even if the pressure doesn’t get as high as The Pressure Canning Police would like.
I just use 60:40 apple cider vinegar:water brine. My tastes run to the simple and sour though; most recipes include salt, sweetener, onions, and some spices. You’re best off reading a few and trying one that sounds good, I suspect.
Downsides of beets
The obvious first: not everyone knows and likes beets. This is a particular problem if they only know them from the commercially canned pickled ones; which are a far cry from even my first home-pickled version.
Red versions are Very red. I rather like it, but they do have a disproportionate effect on any stew or soup they’re in, because RED! The color doesn’t stain like crazy, but it stains some things.
Potatoes (a good comparison root crop) give you more food per garden square foot, if both the beets and the potatoes grow well. This is especially true if you do a successful potato bin. (I’ve an experiment with potato bins still in progress, you can read about it here.)
Nutritionally, beets are strong but not quite as strong as potatoes. Potatoes have more calories per gram and a bit more minerals and protein. Beets have niftier antioxidants. Both have good fiber.
Can beets can be double-cropped if you start a second set midsummer? I should know in a month or so, since I did a second planting this morning. Can one save seed and get good results? Next year will tell; I’m trying it this fall.
A win for beets
These are tastier and easier to prepare than I’d guessed. They are also dead easy to grow, which I had guessed. While they aren’t better than potatoes, they’re worth some of the root crop space. They gain points on diversity, ease of growth, and an extended harvest.
I read they store very well both in refrigerators and in cool, not too moist, dark bins. I’ll be testing those things too, so I expect to do a beet update next spring.
I absolutely LOVE Beets, you name it I fix em that way, and a LOT of pickled Beets. Flash Fry some with a couple of Mint leaves…… yummmmm
BTW, I grow Raised Beds; two of them (4’X8’) are nada but beats, several different varieties. Harvest 150#+ in the fall for storage
Beat Greens cooked with a little spices, a slice of Home Smoked Ham and a splash of Home-Brew Beer….that’s a heck of a meal right there I’m here to tell ya.
And yes, they winter over very well in a cold space, just cut the stems a little longer and the root about 2”, they will be GREAT when there’s 3 feet of snow on the ground.
PS: Potatoes are bland compared to Beets.
We love beets too, especially knowing that they help increase red blood platelets , lower blood pressure and help lower blood sugar levels. Another way to prepare beets is that we cut into slices or chunks with little olive oil and sea salt then onto the BBQ grill either in a grilling bowl or on aluminum foil. Delicious! We also like just putting the more tender leaves in a salad. Will have to try saute` them next time.
After Swiss Chard, Beet Tops are my favorite type of boiled greens. They are certainly nutritious ! I like to cut them in strips and not overboil them. When my pickled beets have about one meal left in the jar, I’ll add a few boiled eggs. The deviled eggs made from them look beautiful.