There was certainly no shortage of red in our red, white, and blue 4th of July! Our Creekside CSA farmer Josh told us he had plenty of beets growing if we were interested in pickling some. Sounded like a good idea to me! We ordered a 1/2 bushel (see the basket above)…which was right around 21 pounds of beets. Turns out 21 pounds of beets will make 12 quarts of pickled beets. Yup, if you’re counting, you’ll only come up with 11 in my photo. This is because I gave a quart away before I remembered to take the photo. :)
This is one 7 pound batch of the beets. I really only have enough equipment to do 7 pounds at a time, which makes 4 quarts.
I asked the Creekside folks (Josh and Kristi) if they’d be willing to share their family recipe for pickled beets, and I also looked up some recipes on my own. It turns out there are a LOT of ways to pickle beets. White vinegar or cider vinegar…a little sugar or a lot of sugar…use spices (clove, cinnamon, etc.) or don’t…use onions or don’t…slice or cube… YIKES! I was a bit overwhelmed. After looking at Josh and Kristi’s recipe and thinking about how I like beets, I decided to go with basic and simple: no spices, no onions. Just beets.
Each batch took a while, but it wasn’t hard. I cleaned the beets and boiled them until they were tender (which took about an hour). I let them cool, then used the dull side of a paring knife to help slide off the peels. Next, I cubed the big ones. I warmed a vinegar, water, sugar, and pickling salt mixture on the stove and then mixed in the cooked beets to make sure everything was warmed through.
Meanwhile, I washed the quart jars and then sterilized them in boiling water for 10 minutes, leaving them in the hot water until I was ready for them. I also heated the lids in some simmering water for a few minutes to get them ready. I evenly distributed the beets and vinegar mixture into the sterilized jars, placed the lids on the jars, loosely screwed the bands on, and processed them in the boiling water bath for 35 minutes.
Obviously I don’t know how they will taste after they sit for a while and, well, pickle. :) I can’t wait to open a jar in a few weeks, and I’m certain that I see many red beet eggs in our future!
csa 4 dinner 