In an effort to assess his fitness for multi-day international hikes next year, husband Paul has decided to return to Flagstaff after Labor Day Weekend to hike at elevation. Because he is my canning partner and oversees the water bath processing on our portable gas stove in the garage I need to be a bit strategic over the next four weeks if I want help with this year’s canning efforts. The season started by ordering 25 pounds of beets for making beet pickles. An inordinate amount of time boiling, peeling and cutting up beets yielded 11 quart jars of beautiful rich red beet pickles that I cleaned up and labeled last night. We set aside several servings of cooked beets that we enjoyed with last night’s supper, inspired by our time in Budapest this summer, Transylvanian Vegetable-Pork Goulash made with a rich paprika cream sauce served over noodles.
Possibly of Celtic origin and referred to as beetroot by the British, beets have been enjoyed since early Egyptian, Greek and Roman times. The greens are edible as well as the beetroot and were used for medicinal purposes (digestion & blood) in earlier times. Wine was even colored with beetroot juice in the 19th century which reminds me of my dad attempting to make beet wine when I was a kid. I was too young to try the suspect beverage at the time but I don’t think the experiment was repeated.
Beets, people seem to either love them or hate them. Most common is serving them boiled or roasted and they can even be shredded and enjoyed raw in salads, etc. I like cooked beets served at room temperature with a little goat cheese. Yum! Don’t forget about beetroot soup, known as Borscht in Eastern Europe. In both Poland and the Ukraine, beetroot is combined with horseradish and served with cold cuts and in sandwiches. In Nordic countries beets are chopped or grated and added to minced meat in making meatballs. Beets are mostly water but high in folate important for all you pregnant women out there. For the beet connoisseur, there are dozens of species to try but probably several that grow best in our cold garden zone.
That’s going to be it for pickling this year as we still have plenty from last year on the shelves. Next up, if and when tomatoes produce and ripen, is making and canning Italian spiced tomato sauce. Paul doesn’t think it’s worth the effort but I love seeing the big round saucepan covering three burners simmering away on the stove and permeating the house with its lusciousness. We enjoyed using the sauce in Chicken Parmesan this weekend and it always comes in handy for Paul’s Deep Dish Cast Iron Pizza he says he’s making this week. Anyway, what’s up first for your canning efforts this year?