The beets are all mine
I canned beets this weekend. A generous customer at the store stopped by last week and asked me if I would like to have a few. I said I would, so he called the store Saturday and asked if he could bring them down. He showed up with a five-gallon bucket full.
Did I ever tell you about the first time I canned beets? First, let me say that it must be a farmer thing to think that a five-gallon bucket of beets is only a few, because that’s what the farmer next door brought me all those years ago as well.
I was newly married and had never canned on my own before. I knew how to safely use a pressure canner from working with my mom. I knew how to pack and clean the rims of the jars, and I knew how to safely remove the jars once the canner had cooled. Still, I had never processed beets before.
I was excited to get started on them and scrubbed a sink full. Then I grabbed a potato peeler and started peeling them. After about an hour, my hands were sore. They were blistering, they were purple, and I still had so many left in the bucket. Young, dumb and determined, I kept at it.
Scrub, peel, slice.
Hours later and with an aching back, I finally finished peeling them all. I then began the lengthy process of slicing them and packing them in jars. I salted the purple disks, covered them with water, and put the lids and rings on the jars. Then I pressure canned them in batches until they were all sealed.
I showed my husband when he got home from the hayfield, proud of my day’s work and how I had prepared for our first winter together.
He looked at the rows and rows of pint jars and said, “Boy, you must love beets.” Apparently, he doesn’t.
Fast forward to this weekend. I hadn’t canned beets in so long, but I was interested in preserving a few. I took a few seconds to look online for how to can beets so that I was refreshed on the method. Imagine my surprise when I saw that you are supposed to par-boil the beets before peeling them.
After they are boiled, the skins just slip off. Literally. They slip off. No hours of peeling, no blisters on the fingers. The skins slip off and the beets slice so easily. And my fingers didn’t have time to become stained by the purple juices.
I ate a few while they were still warm, sliced and salted. They were delicious. I froze some of them, both to try something new and because it has been too hot and miserable to run the pressure canner for hours.
I am looking forward to having them this winter, and especially that they will be all mine. Apparently, none of my kids acquired a taste for them either.