Growing and cooking beets
Here's your second chance to plant these nutritional powerhouses this year.
Hello, friends!
I like to plant at least one new crop every year so that I can learn first-hand its needs and culture and the minutia of dealing with any issues that may arise. This year, I added Thai long beans, Chinese mustard greens and pak choy to my garden, and last week I harvested my first-ever beet crop.
I love beets, but I don’t like the red-stained fingertips that stay with me for a day or two after cooking and peeling them, so I planted a yellow variety called Golden Beets.
They grew beautifully, didn’t really attract any pests (just a couple of leaves had a hole or two in them) and their taproots (the beets themselves) were unblemished. The only negative I can report is that they were supposed to be “mature” 55 days from sowing but 60 days later the largest was just 1 1/4 inches wide versus the expected 2+ inches.
Yes, I did ascertain their sizes before harvesting but I pulled them up anyway. Next year, I’ll sow a bit earlier and maybe leave them in the ground longer.
I realize beets aren’t a very popular vegetable, as I’ve heard from many of you with childhood memories of the dirt-tasting canned variety. But if you’ve never had fresh beets I’m here to tell you the nutritional powerhouses (twice the folate and potassium of canned beets!) are addicting, but please don’t boil them.
Fresh beets are best when roasted, and whether purchased or grown, you can get two side dishes from one bunch! Here’s how I prepare them:
Cut greens off and set aside. Scrub and rinse beets, then wrap them in a foil pouch and roast at 400 degrees on a rimmed baking sheet for 45 to 60 minutes, depending on size (smaller beets will cook sooner than larger ones; test with a knife for softness).
Allow to cool, then slip off their skin with your hands (wear gloves to prevent staining if you’re working with red varieties; I experienced no staining with the golden ones).
Slice or dice beets, drizzle with oil, salt and pepper then enjoy hot or add to salads.
To prepare greens, rinse well (I like to swoosh them in a basin of water to be sure all traces of soil and insects, if any, are completely removed). Then stack the leaves into a pile, roll the pile and slice it into half-inch or 1-inch slices, then saute in oil with salt, pepper and garlic powder. So simple yet absolutely sublime.
My husband and I enjoyed them so much I immediately planted 30 more seeds for a fall crop. Aside from their size, I can’t imagine any improvement on these, but fall-planted beets typically produce deeper color and sweeter flavor than their spring-grown counterparts because they thrive in progressively cooler weather.
Here are some other fall crops to plant now:
Kale
Collard greens
Swiss chard
Gai lohn
Mizuna
Brussel sprouts
Radishes
Turnips
Lettuce
Peas
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Drain and clean birdbaths, and be sure to replenish with fresh water at least twice a week.
🎄🎅IT’S CHRISTMAS IN JULY!🎅🎄
I just discovered a full box of my 2021 day-by-day garden calendars in storage so I’m selling them at 50% off the cover price of $24.95. You get a tip or chore for every day of the year for $12.48 plus shipping.
Grab one before they’re gone — this is for sure the last box — and how else will you know exactly when to fertilize the lawn, thin crowded plants, hunt for vine borers and Japanese beetles, plant trees and shrubs, prune, harvest, treat for various pests or stop planting bulbs — plus more than 300 other ways to keep your garden on track and your houseplants healthy?
📬 Ask Jessica
DEAR JESSICA: I enjoyed reading your answer to Karen Retoske's question about caterpillars eating her milkweed plant. I must offer my insight here, milkweed is not their only food source. A few weeks ago I found them merrily munching on my parsley, which was potted in my herb garden. —Janette Diehlmann, Seaford
DEAR JANETTE: Indeed, the only food source for monarch butterfly caterpillars is milkweed. What you saw munching on your parsley was no doubt the larval stage of the black swallowtail butterfly.
👏 Sunday shoutout
William Fischetti of Merrick, NY, sends along this photo of his “little bit of paradise.”
Paradise, indeed, William. Looks like you can go to the park without leaving your house!
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