Pickled Beets And The Cosmic Confirmation

Harvest Moon rising over the Acadian forest from our window.

We have been canning pickled beets over the past couple of days for the first time. We finished our latest round of canning just in time to watch the Harvest Moon rise over the Acadian forest in our back yard.

It felt like some sort of cosmic confirmation as we continue to bring in our harvest and process the bounty.

While the potatoes we have harvested have all been small so far, our garden produced several contenders in the "Mother Of All Beets" category. It took only 3 of the behemoths to fill twelve 500 ml canning jars.

And we have about 15 more MOABs in the garden waiting to be eaten/processed. 

With all the beets still in our garden, this is just the beginning.

Pickled beets for all. It has been cosmically confirmed as the right thing to do.

Pickled Beets Recipe


Wash beets well, remove beet greens leaving 1" stem and root.

In large pot, cover with water and boil until tender. Drain, saving 1  1/2 cups liquid.

Remove skins under cold water, slice or if small leave whole.

Pack beets in sterilized bottles to 3/4 inch and add brine (see below) to about 1/2 inch from the top. Cover with lid, put ring on until finger tight. 

Process for 30 minutes in boiling water canner.

Brine

1   1/2  cups vinegar
1   1/2 cups beet cooking water
1   1/2 cups brown sugar
1   tsp salt

Bring to boil and simmer 5 minutes.