Your 2024 Garden

[Birdsonghill]

I am one of those lucky people that likes all vegetables fixed one way or another. I have yet to find any vegetable that I did not like fixed somehow. For a short time back when I was eight years old I was at school when a mass hysteria event caused about twenty kids to regurgitate the spinach they had at lunch. One did it then the others responded with the same. I couldn't eat spinach for about a year!

 

[rosemarythyme]

I've had pickled beets and they were.... ok. Beets taste like dirt to me. I'd like to try beet greens, and I'd try beets again too... is there a way to lessen the dirt taste?

Variety matters a lot. The traditional red beets have the most earthy taste (which hubby prefers, I don't, but for him I mostly grow Cylindra beets). I much prefer Golden beets, much milder overall (and not as staining!), to the point that hubby says they don't taste like beets. I also grow Chioggia beets because of the pretty bullseye coloration, and those are also milder than reds but not as sweet IMO as goldens.

Also we don't really eat straight up pickled beets (we can, but it's not much of a side dish). I usually make rödbetssallad which is Swedish beet & apple salad - sweet and a little tangy!

 

[LTAY1946]

We much prefer the small whole pickled beets over pickled sliced beets. I think that there is less nutrient leakage in the whole ones. If we have another beet crop failure like the last crop we tried to grow in the fall then I will buy gallon cans of small whole or cut beets and my wife will pickle that way. The end result will be the same she tells me.

 

[Birdsonghill]

I love beets. Pickled, boiled and shredded or borsch, in salads as a condiment or side dish or soup. Sweet, full of vitamins and minerals and not too difficult to grow. I always have beets in my garden plans. I try new varieties from time to time but have never found one I did not like. I have not tried the golden beets ,yet. Pickled or "Harvard" beets are my favorite!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

We had a neighbor a few years ago that made a giant batch of jarred beets. Not a fan, but he was so proud that our family ate them. Finally got the last jar done a few weeks ago.

 

[Sally PB]

I much prefer Golden beets, much milder overall

I might get some of these at the store and see if I like them. So far I've tried Chard and Collards, and loved both!

 

[fuzzi]

There is one brand of pickled beets in glass jars that don't have the strong earthy taste to them. Aunt Nelly's I think is the brand name. Also the recipes for pickling them at home can be altered to lessen that earthy (dirt) flavoring. We eat them here as Harvard beets too and don't have a problem with the earthy flavor. The root crop that I can't eat is rutabagas. Not fresh and not canned. I will eat a lot of things that are not really good to me at all but there are a handful of things that nauseate me and those rutabagas are one of them. I taught myself long ago to at least try and eat the broadest spectrum of fruit and vegetables as possible because I think there just might be something in those things removing minerals from the earth that my body needs.

I love beets and rutabagas, turnips, too.

I despise kale.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I might get some of these at the store and see if I like them. So far I've tried Chard and Collards, and loved both!

Make sure they're firm and not dry looking... I'm spoiled and can't buy beets, turnips or parsnips from the grocery store anymore, they're always old and dry and sad. If you can get them with the greens, you'll likely find the greens eat similar to chard.

 

[Birdsonghill]

There is one brand of pickled beets in glass jars that don't have the strong earthy taste to them. Aunt Nelly's I think is the brand name. Also the recipes for pickling them at home can be altered to lessen that earthy (dirt) flavoring. We eat them here as Harvard beets too and don't have a problem with the earthy flavor. The root crop that I can't eat is rutabagas. Not fresh and not canned. I will eat a lot of things that are not really good to me at all but there are a handful of things that nauseate me and those rutabagas are one of them. I taught myself long ago to at least try and eat the broadest spectrum of fruit and vegetables as possible because I think there just might be something in those things removing minerals from the earth that my body needs.

The Aunt Nellie's are good! Not as good as mine, of course, but very good!

 

[LTAY1946]

Now there are two things to get soon. Need to restock our pickled beets and need to get some golden beet seed. Very few of the beet seed germinated when I planted them in the fall year before last. That's the first time that has ever happened with beets I planted in well prepared soil. We have never canned carrots before but I think they are on the agenda for canning this coming season too. Never have canned them before. We have froze a few but I think canned might me better for mixing with some cooked stew meat and potatoes.

Now as for speaking of potatoes has anyone ever canned Irish potatoes? If they are in the jar they can't sprout and go bad and it would be easy to thaw out some precooked beef stew and just add potatoes and carrots when time is cut short for a meal prep.