The beet goes on

Well after god knows how long, I finally got to the beets. My purple days are done!!! I thought pickling beets would be onerous, but it was quick and easy once the hubby and I established a system. Now, it's been to long for me to remember the funny (and mostly crazy) stories I had so, I think this one is going to be short and sweet. 


After asking my godmother for her recipe (and being told I could get it from my dad), I finally managed to get a copy of the recipe - and he sends me a broken recipe. So off we go to the ingredients. 


Beets (always useful) - 10 lbs (is it just me, or does this sound like a crapload of beets???)
Sugar - 4 cups (I thought we were pickling, not making jam)
1 tbsp of whole cloves OR 1 tbsp of whole allspice (ps, it's actually 2 tbsp of whole allspice)
3 tsp of pickling salt (this makes sense to me)
7 cups of vinegar (now I believe this recipe is for pickling)
3 cups of water
4 sticks of cinnamon (really???)

Did I mention I LOVE my aunts beets? So, I guess I have to trust that the recipe is correct (save for that one little typo).


The way it works is, you wash your beets, then you boil the crap out of them (roughly 45 mins). Plunge in cold water, and the skin should come right off! Hubby peeled, I trimmed and plopped the beets into the jars. While all this beet prep is going on, you have to have the other ingredients come to a boil and simmer for 15 mins. 

Once a jar is full (of beets), you then add the brine and wipe it down. Seal and voila. Now I am not sure about this next part, but I don't think we can eat them till roughly christmas. This is NOT an instant gratification project. It is however a lovely dying project.

 No, I am not usually this red. 

Results:

• 13 500 ml jars of pickled beets!

(note: lighter beets are my organic, heirloom beets)

Used up:

• 4-6 of the 8 beets we got in the first two baskets

Lessons learned:

I am finding it challenging using up the veggies without it costing me an arm and a leg in additional ingredients/supplies. The pickled beets?  I'm supper psyched about, however I bought a crapload of stuff to complete this project:

• Beets
• Sugar (ran out due to all the jam I made last week)
• Vanilla sticks
• Whole allspice & cloves (yuk)
• Pickling vinegar
• Pickling salt

All that for 6 beets. I don't think I am doing this quite right.