Cool weather crops are dying down in my garden. The lettuce, arugula, and chard have “bit the dust”. But the beets and carrots (who live mostly underground) will be around for a while.
In our temperate, coastal climate, I can leave beets in the ground and harvest them as needed throughout the fall. This past spring, I planted both the globe variety as well as the torpedo-shaped variety of beets. I saw no difference the the growing pattern. The greens on both were affected by our cool, damp summer. Fungus made holes in the leaves and they were quite unsightly and not in the least bit appetizing. So we didn’t get our fill of beet greens as we have in the past.
The ruby red beets, however, have been delectable; sweet, tender, and quite delicious. Last week, I harvested a few pounds of beets, cut off the tops to within 1″ of the beet, and popped them into boiling water, tail root and all. These were large beets, mind you, and took nearly an hour to become tender when poked with a fork. After cooling, the skins slipped right off. I sliced some and grated others.
The grated beets will be made into “beet slaw”, tossed with a light dressing. The sliced beets were served warm with salt and pepper and a dribbling of butter. There is really nothing as lovely as a simply preparation of fresh produce from your garden. Later in the season, I’ll harvest more beets and pickle them for our traditional Scandinavian Christmas dinner. Beets adds vibrant color to a winter smorgasbord.
Those look beautiful. Aside from roasted golden beets, I’m not much of a beet eater.
My daughter and I just visited our family in Sweden and the food was so delicious. What sort of dishes do you prepare for your xmas smorgasbord? I’m partial to pickled herring. My friends here in CA think it sounds terrible but they’ve never tried it!