Can't Be Beet

In our opinion, home canned beets can't be beat. If the choice were store canned ones, I'd just have to do without.

We are running low in the food storage room and since they were getting eaten fast, I had to get them canned. So, big or small and ready or not, they were going in jars.

Canning beets isn't too bad a job. You simply boil them until the skins slip off easily and cut them up to fit in the jars. The small ones went in whole. Those are the ones I use to use for pickled beets but they don't seem to get eaten, even though we like them.

Twenty-six pints later, I was done. Not quite as many as I wanted so it's a good thing we have some left from last year. We'll use up our storage this year and have to plant a much larger area next year.

If my suspicions are right it is the chickens who are eating them. Probably cheaper than the food I buy for them at the feed store but I wasn't prepared to feed them beets too. So if chicken in the garden is on your menu for next year be prepared to plant extras and don't forget to throw in a few more pumpkins and tomatoes while your at it. Then again, you could fence off that area for part of the summer growing season.