Beets Harvesting

Beets Harvest And Storage: Freezing, Pickling

What happens after the beets harvest? With these tips, you can store and successfully preserve your beets. Who is not happy when they can harvest vegetables, lettuce, or fruit in their own garden? Perhaps this year you will have a very special root vegetable in your garden for the first time. Below are tips on when to harvest beets and how to go about harvesting. We also present the various processing options.

If you are still considering whether the beets should find their way into your garden, then our explanations on the cultivation of beets will surely help you. Be courageous: The cultivation of beets requires little care and is also well suited for newcomers to the vegetable garden and raised bed.

Harvesting beets correctly: timing and procedure

It takes three to four months from sowing the beets t seeds to harvest. Beets, like carrots or radishes, can be eaten at almost any stage of growth, regardless of the usual harvest time.

Since the beets can be sown outdoors from the first frost-free days in late March and April, the beets can also be harvested from the end of July. A fully ripe tuber can be more than the size of a tennis ball. If you want particularly tender and aromatic beets vegetables, you can pull the so-called “baby beets” out of the ground four weeks earlier.

Beets harvest time

Beets can be sown from April to the end of June. The harvest of the ripe tubers then shifts accordingly into late summer or autumn. So when can you harvest beetroot? If you want to store tubers for the winter, they should be sown in June so that they can be harvested in October. The tuber keeps best in the bed. It can stay there longer than the maturation period of three to four months. Basically, the beets can linger in the ground up to a temperature of -3 ° C. However, one should bear in mind that the tuber accumulates more water and loses its aroma with increasing age and size.

Tip: The tuber often protrudes a little from the ground. So you can decide whether you want to harvest the respective fruit size. If this is not clearly visible, you can carefully lift a plant out of the ground to test it and then decide whether you want to continue harvesting. Due to the digestibility of the beets in every stage of growth, this procedure is easily possible and no vegetables are wasted.

Beets Harvesting

If you want to let the beets ripen, you should pay attention to when the leaves start to turn yellow: From now on you can harvest. In summary, it can be said that the harvest time of the beets extends from summer until well into late autumn.

Tip: If you want to multiply beets and harvest seeds for this purpose, you can use a trick: Especially old varieties can bloom and form seeds in the first year of cultivation if they were sown very early (March – April). Other varieties have to hibernate for a year to flower.

Harvesting beets: how to do it

It is important to lift the tuber unharmed out of the earth. To do this, you carefully use a digging fork to loosen the soil around the beets and then pull them out. The early evening is the ideal time of day. The stems should be twisted off and not cut off to avoid bleeding. If you leave about 3 cm from the stalk on the beet, it can be stored better. For storage, the earth must not be washed off, but only lightly tapped with the hand.

Harvest beets leave

Can you eat beet leaves? You may have asked yourself this question before during the harvest. The answer is yes: you can not only eat the tubers but also the young beets leaves. These contain many times more vital substances than the tubers. They are most tender at a size of 10 to 12 cm. Of course, not all leaves can be cut off, otherwise, the tuber will not be able to continue growing. The heart leaves and a few others should remain on the plant. The leaves can be processed like spinach orchards.

Beets Harvesting-3

Store beets: in the cellar, in a rented place, or the refrigerator

Those who do not want to process them immediately or otherwise preserve them can store beets. The easiest way to store beets is in the refrigerator. Wrapped in a damp cloth, the tubers can be stored in the vegetable drawer for a few weeks.

Instead, you can pour about 10 cm of damp sand into a wooden box lined with plastic film. This is followed by a layer of undamaged beet tubers. But these should not touch. Then another layer of sand. If the box is high enough, you can also store several layers of beets in it. It is best to store the box in a dark, cool cellar with high humidity.

Another option is to “rent” the garden. For this purpose, the beets are placed in a sand-filled box, similar to the cellar storage, which is then placed in a suitable hole in the garden. The walls of the box should be protected from rodents by close-meshed wire. Before the “treasure chest” is covered with earth, a thick layer of straw should be layered on it to protect it from the cold. If the weather is frost-free, the rent should be opened and ventilated occasionally.

beets  can be stored in different ways 

Preserving beetroot: Prepare them ready to eat

Who doesn’t like to use supplies from their own garden outside of harvest time? The juicy, aromatic root vegetable beets are particularly suitable for preserving. But caution is advised: the betanin contained in the beets tubers is very colorful. In principle, you should not wear your best clothes during further processing but instead, wear household gloves. You don’t have to be so careful with lighter beet varieties.

Pickle or boil beets 

To pickle beetroot, it should first be carefully washed. The tuber is placed in a saucepan and fills with water until it is completely covered. Now bring the water to a boil and cook for about 30 to 40 minutes. Then take the tuber out of the pot and peel it off under running water or quench it briefly, let it cool down and then peel it off.

Now the beet can be placed in the whole size or cut into slices or strips. For this purpose, the prepared parts are layered in a glass with other ingredients, such as onions or ginger, and poured hot with any vinegar brew. The jar should be closed immediately. The beets can be kept for several months if stored in a cool place.

beets  can be cooked down wonderfully

If you want to boil beetroot, proceed as for pickling. However, the sealed jars are boiled down in the crockpot for around 30 minutes at 100 ° C. If beets are preserved in this way, they will keep longer than the pickled vegetables.

Freeze beetroot

Can you freeze beetroot? Yes: just like pickling or boiling, the beets are carefully cleaned and covered with cold water. The water is brought to a boil and the tuber is boiled for 30 to 40 minutes, depending on its size. Then it is removed, quenched, and peeled. When it is completely cold, it is cut into strips, cubes, or slices or filled as a whole in bags or cans and frozen. This way the vegetables can be kept for a long time. It can then be further processed as required at a later point in time.

Use beets fresh

Beets can be used in a variety of ways in the kitchen. The juicy, aromatic root vegetables can be steamed, fried, or made into a soup. You can also conjure up french fries or crispy chips from them. Even raw beets are becoming more and more popular as a salad.

There are many uses for beets

Beets recipe ideas

There are numerous recipes for beetroot, and the uses are extremely versatile. Below we would like to share a few ideas with you.

Beets Juice

Beets juice mixed with apples, carrots, and lemon is a very refreshing and healthy delicacy. If you have a juicer, dare to try this special drink and make beet juice yourself.

Beets soup

Apples, carrots, and ginger are also very harmonious partners in a beet soup. You can refine the cooked and pureed ingredients with broth, cream, and cream cheese.

Beets Chips

Here the raw beets are washed, peeled, and then cut into thin slices or sliced. The slices are placed on a baking sheet, drizzled with oil, and sprinkled with salt. At 160 ° C, it takes a good half an hour until the chips are ready to be enjoyed.

Beets chips don't just look exciting
Beets salad

Regardless of whether it is grated raw (peeled beforehand) or cooked and chopped up, with the right dressing, every beet turns into a delicious salad. Apple pieces and walnuts and a nice balsamic dressing are particularly tasty.

Beets fries

Just like with classic potato fries, the peeled tuber is cut into chips-like sticks and cooked in hot frying oil. Then season with salt and pepper.

Beets carpaccio

Cook the beets in hot water for about 40 minutes. Then chill and peel the beetroot. Slice into fine slices and serve with lamb’s lettuce, pears, and a light dressing, for example.

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