When I was a kid I spent a lot of time at my grandparents house in the summer. I remember distinctly one day, my grandma was preserving beets. They were beautiful and ruby red. I was so excited, because at Thanksgiving, I loved eating beets. I told my grandma, and she got out a bowl and gave me a big bowl of beets. I sat down in front of the TV and took one bite and knew immediately that beets were not what I thought they were! At Thanksgiving the next year I realized that what I like was cranberry sauce, sliced in beautiful rounds just like big red beets. I didn’t like beets for many years after that.

When I came to Alaska, I learned that root vegetables grow really well here so I tried growing some. I have been gardening in Alaska now for almost 30 years. I can’t grow beets. I shouldn’t say can’t. I have successfully grown beets 2 times in that almost 30 years. Just enough to give me hope that maybe this year (every year) will be a good year. This has not been a good year for beets for me.

But, my husband and son-in-laws really like beets, and I have grown to enjoy pickled beets. In the past few years I have found beets locally, but not in the quantity I have wanted. Last Thursday my husband and I ventured over to Palmer, and I found locally grown beets at a store called Bushes and Bunches. They were in 25 pound bags and there were 2 varieties, a golden beet and a traditional red beet. I had to get one of each. I think this is the most beets I have ever had to preserve all at once before.

Because my husband and son-in-laws like just cooked beets, I have done 6 quarts of just beets, some of each kind, and will finish off the bags with more just canned beets. In the middle of the bags I have been making pickled beets. Last year I had a few golden beets, but not enough to make batches separately, so the two kinds got mixed together. This year I have enough to make separate batches for each color of beet. I have been using the recipes in the Ball Blue Book: Guide to Preserving.

The golden beets are supposed to be a little bit sweeter. I cooked some up for dinner the other night but no one could tell a difference. But when I boiled them to get ready to can them, the liquid from the golden ones was much stickier than from the red, so there is more sugar. I will be curious to note if that carries over into the canning process or not.

I enjoy canning food and filling my shelves each fall. There is peace about having food on the shelves, but also knowing where that food came from and exactly what’s in it. This has been a good season so far. In the next couple of weeks we will be picking the rest of our garden in preparation for winter. I am excited to see how productive all the below ground veggies have been this year. I know I won’t have as many carrots as I didn’t get them thinned properly, but the potatoes are looking great, and half the onions look good. I didn’t plant nearly enough onions, but I will do better next year.