Canning Beets

On Monday, I harvested all of the beets.  My mother always made pickled beets and I love pickled beets in spinach salad, or just salads in general and by themselves.  It took me all day to get all the beets finished because I had to do it in batches.  I ended up with 17 pints of beets.  I'm giving the 6 in the picture to my daughters and the rest will more than be enough to last me through the year.  And I may give some away for gifts.  After I finished canning and cleaning up the kitchen,  I sat down and thought about the whole process from planting the seed and all of the care that goes into that, then the harvest and the process of preparation of canning.  Then I thought about walking into the grocery store going to the canned vegetable isle and picking up a jar of pickled beets.  Huh!  Is it worth all that work?

I love gardening and there is something satisfying about being a producer and not a consumer.  I know there are no pesticides in my garden and no preservatives in my canning process that has chemicals in it.  That's a major issue to me.  Even though it is a lot of work, I would rather be productive.  I like that feeling.  I want to tell you that I do have my days when I sit all day a read a book that I am really into or I'm into something on You Tube that I can't break myself away from.  I do try to guard myself from the emptiness of a busy life.

This is my mom's recipe for pickled beets:

10 pounds of beets
2 cups of sugar
2 cups of water (or you can use the liquid that the beets boil in)
1 quart of vinegar
1 tablespoon of salt

Wash and clean beets well.  Leave the tail in tact on the beet.  You can cut that off and I do sometimes because it makes the water redder and I like that for canning.  Cook the beets until tender.  That will take about 45 minutes.  When the beets are tender pour off about 2 cups of liquid if you want to use that liquid instead of water. Discard the rest of the liquid.   Let the beets cool.  Then slip off the skin and trim both ends.  If the beets are a good size I quarter them, smaller I cut in half and if the size of a nickel I leave whole.  Have clean and sterilized jars and lids ready to go and fill the jars with the prepared beets.  Also, while beets are getting tender make up your syrup to pour over them.  It's the sugar, water, vinegar and salt and let this mixture come to a boil.  Pour this mixture over the beets and leave about a 1/2 to 1 inch head space at the top of the jar.  Screw on the lid and put jars into a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.  Then sit out on the counter on a dish towel and leave for 24 hours.  Then the jars may be put away.

In every batch I cut the ends off of some of the beets because I want the red water.  Just clarifying !
If you ever plan on remodeling your kitchen or you are going to get a new stove top and you cook a lot be sure and get a 6 burner stove top.  You will never regret it. When I'm canning, on holidays or preparing a lot of food this is a life saver.