Yes indeed, it’s that time of year, again. Beets, beets, beets….my husband and I eat a lot of bottled beets. They are basically a staple on our table for many meals.
My husband pulled and topped (leaving 1” greenery to help avoid bleeding during cooking) the beets the night before then put them on our garbage can cooker at 6:30am.
I went out to get a picture of our cooking set-up but my husband had already put it away. It’s basically a Camp Chef, propane burner stove with a clean, metal garbage can placed on it with two bricks in the bottom of the garbage can and a few inches of water. You place a wired potato basket filled with beets on top of the bricks then place the garbage can lid (holes punched in top for steam escape) on your can, set the heat to medium and your all set to go. It took the beets approximately 1 1/2 hours to cook.
After the beets were cooked, I removed them from the garbage, placed them on the grass and hosed them down. After cooking the beets, hosing them down with the cold water makes it very easy to take off the outer layer (skin) of the beets.
The beets were then brought into the house where I skinned them and washed them one more time, cutting out any bad spots.
I then slice them up and place them in my canning jars. I started using my mandoline slicer but found it easier, actually, to just use a knife to cut the beets into uniform slices.
While sitting at the table cutting beets, 5 bucks passed by the window but by the time I washed my hands and grabbed my camera, there was only 1 left. I know, the deer have nothing to do with canning beets, buy hey, couldn’t pass up a beets and bucks moment.
By the time I got my beets sliced, I ended up with 3 large bowls of sliced beets.
I was able to get 16 jars of beets from this batch of beets. I got up the next morning and decided to do a few more beets, giving me a total of 22 jars. I still have beets in the garden but I decided to let others enjoy them (wink, wink….I’m tired of doing beets) so I’m done with beets for this year.
This is the process I use for canning beets. If you live in a different area, your processing time and instructions may vary. I have also baked my beets in the oven instead of using the Camp Chef. This process works very well but takes a lot more time.
4 comments:
Hi Marsha~
I love beets! My beets were terrible this year! Yesterday, my husband dug up a few beets for dinner, after cooking them, I threw most of them away! We ended up with just enough for dinner, the rest will be dug up fed to the horses . . . they love them! What a great tutorial on how to can beets and make pickled beets, one of my favorite things in the world!
Your garden amazes me!!
Hugs,
Barb
I really like beets but have never canned them. Looks like a huge undertaking, but I am sure they are delicious! I would love to learn from your how to do things like this...too bad I live so far away! Have a great week!
They look pretty....I love the color of beets. I really like pickled beets also. The last time I did them I sliced them with an egg slicer...Max
I too love beets. I used to love to bottle but haven't for a very long time. I do love reading your tutorial with pictures. I loved the deer picture too. There is a sense of accomplishment when you count those 22 bottles.
Blessings and hugs!
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