Harvesting Beets

 What a surprise, I went out to hand pick cabbage moth caterpillars off the broccoli and cabbage and found out that some of the beets were ready to be picked.  So there is no time like the present right?  We went ahead and picked the beets and washed them with the garden hose.
Then we cut the tops off, leaving about 2 inches above each beet and separated the beet greens from the beets.  There were a couple of small beets that were picked by accident.  These we put in the beet green bowl.  My mouth was watering just thinking   about having the greens for dinner.



We brought the bowls in and washed the beets again and then put them back into the pot with warm water just covering them.  We boiled them about 20 minutes to get the skins soft enough to come off.  Meanwhile we washed the greens really well and cut half of them up in a bowl for dinner and half of them went in a bag for dinner in a couple of days.

After the beets were done boiling, they were peeled, sliced, and placed in quart jars that were sterilized.  In the quart jars I also put some onion.  After they were filled with the beets, I covered them with a vinegar solution and sealed the jars.  They will taste good this winter.  


The greens were cooked in a large pan with a little coconut oil, salt, and garlic scape's.  They were mighty tasty with a little bit of apple cider vinegar on them.