Beet Failure

AS they say, one thing leads to another.

Especially in the hardware store. Have you come up with a better way to keep them…

in line?

Early morning on the Fourth of July.

These ladies are not much for chatting, unless they don’t have enough grass. Then they bleat in surprisingly deep, gruff voices.

Eunice stamps her left front hoof at you if you don’t get the gate opened fast enough.

On the 4th of July we decided to process beets. This may sound un-celebratory to you, and I suppose it is. However, with Annual Training fast approaching, and the beets already well in the size range to process, we didn’t really have much of an option. We had planted a new variety this year, called Chiogga. This variety grew faster than our old standby, cylindra, and were quite a bit larger on average. Most of them were ready, but the cylindra were not.

We also checked out a head of wheat. It is almost ready. The berries are still soft, but delightfully mild and nutty.

Here is where we made our first big mistake. We but the beets in cold water, and then brought the water up to temp. We were both distracted, and neither of us were paying close attention, but this is not the standard procedure, and we eventually figured out why.

Meanwhile we pealed one of the Chioggas.

We sliced it thin and fried it in butter. Mommy and Daddy tasted it and thought that it was unbelievably sweet at first, but we detected a strong, bitter/acidic aftertaste. The more slices we ate, the stronger it got, until it started overpowering even the sweet fore-taste. It became so unpleasant we couldn’t even finish a beet between us.

Oh yes, Mommy is wearing her 100% wool, hand-knitted sweater from Ireland, on the 4th of July. It is 80 degrees outside. She is just that kind of Mommy.

And this is why you boil the water first and then drop the beets into boiling water. It took forever to get the water up to temperature, and it heated the beets up gradually, so that by the time the skins were ready to slip they were soft all the way through.

However, the chioggas still had the bitter/acid aftertaste and we just couldn’t get past it. The kids dutifully tasted their required bites, but pulled faces at the after taste. Turns out some people only taste the sweet, and some people taste the bitter/acid taste of the high levels of Geosmins.

So we fed the chioggas to the chickens. There is no reason to preserve a half dozen quarts of beets that no one will want to eat. Instead, vacuum sealed and froze only the cylindras. Lesson learned. We will not be planting that variety again.