The first time I pickled beets was last year, with Chioggia beets I grew myself. I started at 9:00 p.m. because that's when I have time to do preservation projects. There was a thunderstorm rolling in, and for once it really poured (we live in an arid region, so that's pretty rare). I finished after midnight and decided to clean up later. The next day I saw they'd turned a shocking pink due to the candy striping of the beet variety, which delighted me. As I cleaned up, I took a closer look at the 'pickling spices' I'd used for the brine. It was not pickling spice. It was mulling spice. Those beets are absolutely delicious, a true happy accident, and they won a blue ribbon at the county fair. I'm doing more this year; my sister-in-law loves pickled beets.
You can also pickle beet leaves and make soup with it after. In Poland, we call it botwina. And soup is called botwinka. We sow thick beets and then when it is time to thin off them we leave so they grow a little more and get bigger leaves. When they are ready to thin we do not throw them away we pickle them. The measurements are European so you need to translate it yourself so I will not mess it up for you. The recipe is for 8 jars 450/500ml . 4 big bunches of beets with leaves yes with stems too if you like, 1 big bunch of fresh dill, or if you have chopped dill in the freezer one big pinch for a jar will do too. 2 small cloves of garlic if big one per jar. pours: 2 and 1/2 L water, 2 and 1/2 flat tablespoons of salt, 2 and 1/2 tablespoons of sugar, 6 tablespoons of white 10% vinegar. Mix it and that will be for 8 jars. Chop thin tiny beets with leaves and stems. put them in the jar and press firmly so that they are 20 cm from the rim of the lid, put dill and 2 gloves of garlic and pour with soup ladle water with vinegar salt, and sugar till the rim of the lid and close the jar. Do that 7 times and then you can pasteurize 80 C / 20 min remove hot and tighten the cap again. Leave it to cool down and then you can store it for many years in a cool and dark basement or room.
Holy Moly girl!!! I truly love your "R & R" gardening channel, but really loving the Farmer's Table Channel too because I always have so so much that I harvest and end up running out of folks to give it all away to and would love to see so many more recipes and how-to's on this channel. I know you are a super busy family, but I truly look forward to learning ways to put it all to good use on this channel. Maybe this Fall once we all we all have a tiny "break" from our gardens, we'll be able to share all of our "farm-to-table" recipes with one another. Thank you for all you do....I just had a scary situation happen this week from being so dehydrated from being out in the garden and homestead, and wasn't intaking near enough water and electrolytes. Had to go in the hospital for a couple days to balance them back out. So PLEASE all of you make sure you stay hydrated when you're out in this heat because it's truly more dangerous than I even knew(as a nurse).
The salad looks de-lic-ious! I grew up with pickled beets. After leaving my parents home I discovered that not everyone knew & loved pickled beets the way I do.
Once my pickled beets are eaten, I save the brine and add hard boiled eggs. After a week (if they last that long) they are fantastic! Beet pickled eggs for the win! Lol
We always had pickled beets on our table when I was growing up. I loved them. My mother re used the beet brine to make pickled eggs. So yummy and pretty pink eggs.
Yes, I find I always need more brine than what the recipe calls for…and when I do extra, I use it to can up pink pickled onions! The onions in that beet pickling juice is the BEST!!!
After your cold cucumber soup video a few days ago my TikTok algorithm has been showing me slavik foods. Today was Holodnik, cold beat soup. The video I saw used kefir but most recipes online I see use buttermilk or sour cream. It would be delicious with your pickled beats. I love when worlds come together. ❤
Oh Jess. I've been following you for a long time. Yesterday I closed on the sale of my beloved farm. Most folks may be jumping for joy at the fact that all that is being wired to the bank. I'm thankful yes but had my partner not passed unexpectedly I would never have sold. I love growing my own food, caring for my flocks and herds. There was just too much to maintain on my own. I'm very thankful, and I too bless you until next time. Pickled beets are one of my favorites
@Eph1-4 yes. I truly thought I would live out my days there. I'm thinking an adventure is ahead but it's a loss. It's OK to feel the feelings. Kinda surreal. Blessings to you
I love pickled beets or I call them beet pickles. I always cook my beets first, add to cold water & the skins slide off easily. Your way gives the same results😉 Thanks for sharing! Blessings to everyone 🤗🇨🇦
Beets and cucumber pickles....these were apparently once the mark of a good cook and canner in the upper south/Appalachian foothills (im in southern KY). And the mark of perfection was...only the tiniest cucs and small, perfect round beets, could go on tbe relish dish for guests. My grandmother frustrated my grandpa so much, because she picked cucumbers no longer than the first joint of her little finger and half as big around. Beets were no larger than a quarter. He was after the harvest. She was after the status. 😂 Finally, the three-acre garden was expanded to include an entire row of "pickling baby cucs" and "pickling baby beets". In addition to the slicers and larger cucs that became bread and butter pickles. It kept the peace in the family, and taught me a life lesson. If he is a roller and Im a squeezer, buy two tubes of toothpaste! (We do😊) Man, i miss those beets. Sweet and simple. Love this video, Jess. You make me cry in a good way. Tears filled wih sweet memories.
I love beets. Mine are still growing in Oregon, but I’m thankful for your basic, common sense recipe for the brine. The internet can feel overwhelming when searching recipes. I made this recipe for dinner tonight, it was delicious! Loved your homemade salad dressing.
I’ve heard of pickled beets, but I’ve never had them until today when the beets I planted were ready for picking. I love plain beets, but my family does not. My adult sons helped me get it all done, and pickled beets are a new favorite for me. My sons haven’t tried it yet, but I they will in a few weeks when I make a salad. I’m so thankful for your channel! My sons watched you first, cause I told them you could show them what was needed better than I could explain it!
I make refrigerator pickled beets that are super yum. Balsamic vinegar, water, red onion, red beets. Boil beet cubes til fork tender, put in jar with raw red onion sliced thick. 1:1 vinegar to water, a pinch of pink salt. seal, shake, put in fridge for a week. eat on top of a salad
Love this - we have a crop of golden beets to preserve and this is my first year of dealing with a large garden and all its harvests. My new hubby is a former market gardener, so he grows in abundance! I will definitely use this recipe! I am hoping you are going to write a farm-to-table seasonal cookbook - that would be so handy! 💗
My Grandma and My Treasures(her brothers) pickled everything. Beet's, okra, green beans, pears.....I thought Momma knew how...she doesn't and Grandma and Treasures have died...and if course nobody wrote their recipes down. Could you do other pickled videos?
I love pickled beets, too! They are one of my favorite things to can. The jars look like jewels, the color is so beautiful. Growing up, neighbors helped neighbors, and I always helped one of our neighbors during canning. She would blanch the beets, and it was my job to slip the skins off. I loved doing it because I got to do it outside, and I liked the feel of the skins slipping off. It's a lot easier and faster than peeling them raw. I like your vinegar and sugar choices. Your salad is a great idea. They look beautiful! Happy canning 😊.
I usually fail at growing beets; I've been told that they're easy... but they never want to grow for me (maybe because I have a short spring and I don't always manage to time them right in the fall). I just harvested my first reasonably-sized crop of beets and now I need to preserve them! I was overjoyed to see that you have a video about preserving them :D
I haven’t had any luck growing beets in the last 4 years we’ve been living in our house. This year they didn’t do well because of the leaf mulch I put down. Usually I just don’t thin them well enough. Hoping I’ll be able to source them elsewhere because I really enjoy beets. A friend of mine gave me some pickled beets that they made in 2015! I’d never had them before this year and I definitely want to try making some for myself!
Thank you so so much for this video! I am now gonna have to grow beats next year and try these I so miss my mom and Grandmas canned beats! it used to be a staple in the fridge when I was growing up! I remember loving them so much(havent had since I was a child mom is gone now) and possibly drinking the beat juice after!
I love pickled beets, I wish more people in my family liked them. One thing I did the last time I made some was pop in some sliced jalapenos to give it a little kick. (put them in my dill pickles too)
I know you preserve a lot, have you tried a steam canner? They are so time saving! Your process the same amount of time but you don't have to wait forever for a lot of water to boil initially
I love pickled beets, but then I love beets fixed anyway at all. Thanks for sharing your time to show how you fix them, also the salad you fixed for Miah. I'm sure he enjoyed that on a hot day. Y'all stay cool and have a Blessed day.
I love beets! I can't wait to try pickled beets. I use to grow the red and white ones when my 3 boys were little. They called them target beets and they were the only kind they wound eat...lol.
We love pickled beets, and I have a ton of cylindra still in my garden now that are only just bulbing due to our horrendous weather. I don't ever use sugar in my pickles. I sometimes add salt if it's required, or for a quick pickled onion recipe I have, which would actually go fantastic with cooked beets, I use the honey from my Honey Fermented Garlic. I joined a canning group. Wow, now that's an experience for someone that has never used a stove top pressure canner. Try to step away quietly, and hope no-one notices lol
The easiest way to peel beets is to par boil them and the skins will just slide right off. Plus it does some cooking for you. We love pickled beets in our family!!❤
My farmer friend prefers to boil her beets with the tops and roots still on so they are able to retain more of their juice before being cut and pickled.
I do a similar recipe, except I don't use star anise, cloves or peppercorns, I use the same amount of salt to cinnamon instead. I use my homemade feijoa (Pineapple Guava) vinegar. I use raw cane sugar instead.
This has been on my list to try for the longest time. My Grandma used to pickle beets, she would say " just for you" because they were my FAVORITE thing. Only Grandma made them. We had to travel a whole day to see her. I just remember being so excited for her beers! Lol YUM!
I love the way you explained the use of the ratios. Allows me to be creative (not everything works out). I typically make several gallons of brine at once. If I'm dragging out the bulk items to make a brine I do the ratio to cover the crop (be it eggs, pickles, beets, radish pods, carrots, etc.) And I also grab my big stock pot to make an extra batch of just the brine to throw in jars. This way I have it on hand and easy-to-use for small batch harvests and quick refrigerator pickles. On hand I keep a Dilly Brine, a Salt brine, a Sweet Brine, and Hot an spicy, and a Hot and sweet. FYI...beets taste great but radish pods do not taste good in a traditional cinnamon and clover flavored sweet brine. They're pretty awful. 😂
I'm so excited for these preservation videos Jess! 😁 I did try beets once and didn't love them, but I may try again, just because. Would this work as a refrigerator recipie? There are only 2 of us and I don't want to create waste.
Ive never seen beetroots done this way, we always cook them first and then peel and chop apparently it stops them 'bleeding' particularly the deep red ones, Ive got beetroot growing at the moment specifically to preserve so will have to try this recipe
This looks so tasty! I unfortunately just finished pickling my beet harvest this year, otherwise I would have given this a try! I used fresh ginger, with coriander and peppercorns. I was on the fence about using acv and ended up going for just white vinegar, but it's good to know that acv complements beets well. I'll give your recipe a go next harvest :)
When we do pickled beets , we use the leaves and make beet leaf buns, nothing gets wasted. Some recipies call them beetniks as well. It's a very Ukrainian/Polish recipie that my gramma always made.
my beets inground zone 6A are just up, so far from yours!! My husband loves the beets in a green salad, I love them streamed with butter. tnx for the info. I've tried soo many different pickling recipes. Don''t care for the clove in them or cinnamon either. I'll continue this year and see how we like yours. 🍄🥬🥒🫐🍉🍇🥭🍎🍑🫑🧄
My aunt made beet jelly with the water from cooking the beers until tender. Then canned the beets but took the purple beet water and added sugar and dissolved grape jello mix over heat and then can that. You can thank me later.
I can the same way. How is one to know how much produce comes in from the garden on any given day. If the ratio of vinegar/water is correct and it covers the beets then it’s perfect.
After having the beets bleed out their color, Mother always cooked the beets whole first, root and tops (minus the leaves), and then peeled them which is much easier after they are cooked. With a paper towel, the skins slip off easily. Cut into sizes desired and then using the cooking liquid as the water part add the vinegar and sugar. We never added anything else and they are perfect that way. Viewers should try plain first before adding any other spices like anise, cloves or anything else, Vinegar, sugar and beet juice is the pure version of Southern pickled beets
Do you take the cloves, cinnamon sticks... out before jarring them? I'm thinking that would make the flavour overpowering? Also, if leaving them in, how would you get even flavour through all of the jars? On a different note, does anyone have a record they like for harvard beets? It's something we used to have in childhood.