First Harvest Beets ~ Detroit Dark Reds
A few days ago I found a few beets ready to be harvested from my garden. They are between 2 and 3 inches in diameter and were sticking their "heads" up out of the soil. I carefully plucked 5 of them and brought them to my front porch to be photographed and weighed.
The 5 beets weighed 1 lb total, and the beet greens when separated from the beet roots weighed 1/2 lb. I like to grow beets because homegrown beets taste great and I enjoy getting two crops, the red roots and the lovely green tops, when I only planted one! Two crops for the same amount of work as one.
Clean Bright Beet Colors
When I get enough homegrown beets harvested at one time, I like to make and can pickled beets. Not sure that will happen this season. I may just eat them fresh as I harvest them little by little.
These Detroit Dark Red beauties are my favorites and are my most reliable beet variety. I have also planted a Golden Beet this year. They are growing, but are not yet big enough to harvest.
Stay tuned for more garden harvest updates in the next few days. The veggies are growing fast and wild with this heat wave.
© Copyright 2008 Mountain Harvest Basket
5 comments:
Your beet harvest looks absolutely fabulous.
One of my bean plants (previously snow peas), was sacrificed to the pesky gophers yesterday.The entire 5 inch tall plant is totally missing now, and they even covered up the hole.
They are very crafty critters,hopefully they will leave the other 4 plants alone since I shared my garden bounty with them.
The score so far is four for me, one for the gophers.
Beautiful beets, Jen! With the beet greens, do you use these fresh in salads or steam them like spinach? I love pickled beets!
Sorry about Bob's gopher. That's funny that he's keeping score! :-)
Is there anything he can do to protect his remaining bean (snow pea) plants?
Writing a second comment so I can get the "email follow-up comments" box. Sometimes the box doesn't appear for the first comment and I won't see your response. :-)
Hi Bob,
Thanks for the beet praise. They do look good this year. I hate to tell you that your other green bean plants are indeed in danger of being eaten by the gophers. Once they find something tasty in your garden they will be back for more. You can dig them up and replant them in your wine barrel or replant them where they are with gopher wire cages around them. Regular 1" chicken wire doubled up or a single layer of 1/2" avian wire would also work and would be less expensive than gopher cages. Do it now before all of the bean plants disappear.
Hi Danni,
Very young and small (2-3 inch) beet greens are good raw in salads, but the bigger more mature greens like you see in my beet photo are better steamed or sauteed like you would do with spinach or Swiss chard, or collard greens. I like to use mine in stir fries or just sauteed with onions, garlic and olive oil and served with a savory meat like sausages. English Bangers or German Bratwurst come to mind. Polish Sausage would work too. Finish the greens with a squirt or two of fresh lemon juice just before serving them.
I see the "email follow up comments" box here on the comment form screen, but have never used it. Thanks for teaching me something new!
Thanks for the "How to Cook Beet Greens" lesson. I've never tried them, but I love other greens. Just haven't thought about using beet greens . . . duh! I love beets and your harvest look like the perfect tender size.
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