baymule
Garden Master
The greens make great salads and I sautee'd them in butter with mushrooms.
What are You Eating from the Garden?
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Zeedman
Garden Master
Last year, after not growing beets for many years, I tried planting some late in a bare spot. Unfortunately, I over-estimated how quickly they would grow in the waning days of Summer. They never even formed bulbs, and I ended up just harvesting the tops for greens. This year I'll plant them earlier. I was thinking of pickled beets, but canned spiced beets sound really good.
flowerbug
Garden Master
Last year, after not growing beets for many years, I tried planting some late in a bare spot. Unfortunately, I over-estimated how quickly they would grow in the waning days of Summer. They never even formed bulbs, and I ended up just harvesting the tops for greens. This year I'll plant them earlier. I was thinking of pickled beets, but canned spiced beets sound really good.
i don't consider them easy plants to start out, i think they are slower to germinate when compared to things like beans and peas. so to me they seem more like carrots, a bit more of a challenge to get going. also they have to usually be thinned out to have a decent crop. luckily the thinnings are edible.
as for me, the thing that i liked about them when i was growing them was that they were a good indicator of garden soil quality. at first when i started growing them in some gardens here they were spindly, poorly growing, bad leaf quality, but eventually the beets themself would be ok once they got going. as i was able to improve the soil the whole experience and quality of the greens improved.
Zeedman
Garden Master
I'm afraid that because I've planted chard in late summer & it did well, I assumed the same would be true for beets, since they are the same species. When I lived in San Jose, I could grow beets as a Fall crop. Not here, apparently.
Alasgun
Deeply Rooted
The question, “what are you eating out of your garden today”?
The Answer, breakfast fruit cup has some of our cherries, raspberries and crab apple sauce each day. Lunch has some of our ferment pickles and beets each day. We also eat kale at lunch every day and we’ve discovered a great way to keep it over much of the winter. In the fall, i cover the plants to keep the snow from destroying them and as we need a plant, i cut it and hang it upside down high up above the back door. Otherwise the moose will step up on the deck and eat it. And supper (today) contained our potatoes and salmon we caught in season!
i had to think about this a minute because we probably take some of it for granted.
Some of this years beets, cylindria (wont re-do), merlin (good beet, too small), Dakota bliss, (the new standard)!
The Answer, breakfast fruit cup has some of our cherries, raspberries and crab apple sauce each day. Lunch has some of our ferment pickles and beets each day. We also eat kale at lunch every day and we’ve discovered a great way to keep it over much of the winter. In the fall, i cover the plants to keep the snow from destroying them and as we need a plant, i cut it and hang it upside down high up above the back door. Otherwise the moose will step up on the deck and eat it. And supper (today) contained our potatoes and salmon we caught in season!
i had to think about this a minute because we probably take some of it for granted.
Some of this years beets, cylindria (wont re-do), merlin (good beet, too small), Dakota bliss, (the new standard)!
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baymule
Garden Master
I can my beets with a little powdered cinnamon and a few whole cloves, ACV, sugar and water. After we eat the beets, I drink the juice. Yummy!
flowerbug
Garden Master
I'm afraid that because I've planted chard in late summer & it did well, I assumed the same would be true for beets, since they are the same species. When I lived in San Jose, I could grow beets as a Fall crop. Not here, apparently.
depending upon when you plant it can be harder to get them started. or do you mean you got them going and then they did nothing? those are quite different issues IMO. the first is that they need pretty even/regular moisture to get going and we had some pretty hot dry spells so perhaps that would be a reason they'd not get started. but if instead you had issues with them not growing it could have been more to do with weed pressure or the heat.
around here is sugar beet growing land, they love sunshine and enough moisture and don't seem to be picky about soil as i think a lot of them are grown in the heavy clay fields and while they would need some nitrogen fertilizer and other nutrients if they are lacking i don't think they are heavy feeders as compared to corn. since that is a hunch i had to look it up to see if it was right or not. from what i see the nitrogen use is about half that of corn and about the same amount as needed by tomatoes. which is more than i expected. however, this does fit in with my own observations about growing beets before that did poorly until i could get a garden properly amended.
Zeedman
Garden Master
I think a combination of planted too late (mid-August) and weed pressure. We weeded around them fairly early, but the late start didn't give the beets much time to recover.
Looking back, I realized that except for one failed effort with golden beets about 10 years ago (bad seed) this was the first time I've planted beets since we moved here 25 years ago. Except for carrots & radishes, we haven't grown many root crops here due to the heavy soil; but perhaps it is time to revisit that decision. My grandparents used a lot of root vegetables, and I have fond memories of Grandpa's New England boiled dinner (with carrots, potatoes, and turnips) and mashed rutabaga.
Reminiscing about my early years, something else comes to mind. All of my relatives, and the house my father inherited from his mother, had root cellars... which along with cisterns, are only historical afterthoughts in modern home construction. My Grandfather's root cellar was always well stocked with bins of vegetables & apples, which lasted most of the winter. That skill has mostly vanished from our culture now, perhaps due to increasing urbanization, and the easy year-round access to vegetables in our food system. IMO we've not only lost much of the knowledge about root cellaring accumulated by our ancestors, we may have lost many of the varieties bred over generations expressly for their storage qualities.
Given that food insecurity is more than just a theoretical concept now, it would not surprise me to see a resurgence of interest in root cellaring & other means of long-term winter storage. I see that there was at least one thread in TEG on this topic (from before I joined) and I will be reading it with great interest.
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flowerbug
Garden Master
a few days ago i posted these in my stubbed toes thread:
[Fixit over on SS mentioned:
"This is a good place to add a resource of mine (Fixit not me)."
DOWNLOAD BOOKS
and one i've had book marked for ages:
Soil and Health Library – Health begins in the soil
soilandhealth.org
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Artichoke Lover
Deeply Rooted
I want want a root cellar and have for years! We grow most of our own vegetables and it would be great to not be canning potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions and carrots. Plus if I make it big enough I can store my canned stuff down there.
Right now I’m very grateful to live in small farming community where we haven’t lost as much of those skills yet. It’s still somewhat common to have a large garden or a well. But I’m afraid that a lot of these skills will die out after my grandparents and parents generations pass. As it is there’s already a huge knowledge gap between those generations.
