Beets with a Beat

When you know beets are delicious because you've had them in a salad, but you bought them and they look so horrid that you lose all hope, don't fear! Growing beets is very methodical, and rhythmic, the harvesting and cooking are as well. So keep up with the beat of the beets, and follow my song!

My friend has bee growing beets in her yard because she thought they would be cool and fun to grow. The problem is, after forgetting about them for 6 months in the ground, we've realized that the leaves were tough and inedible, and the beets themselves were small, and hard.  Hard beets? But they were soft and in much larger chunks in the salad I ate! I guess they were cooked? how? Roasted? boiled? baked? fried? :-/  Darn.

I love growing beets because they actually don't need much space. You can grow them on a patio in a pot that is about 5 inches deep. I love the leaves because they are glossy and green often with beautiful red stems. A great decorative outdoor plant!

So first of all, growing beets is quite easy. You seed them in the ground, pushing the seed about an inch into soft ground. Our soil is very much clay soil, so to prepare the ground, we first need to dig it up and mix our clay soil with some potting soil and fertilizer. After planting your seeds and covering them lightly with dirt, sprinkle them lightly with water every 2 days for the next 4 weeks, and then you'll see some plants coming up. If each plant is closer than 2 inches to the next, you'll want to move them carefully to give each beet root room to thrive.

As the plants grow and you continue to water them every 2 days, the leaves will also start to grow.
The growing follows a 2/4 pattern (every 2 days watering, 4 weeks to get seedlings, 2 inches apart, 2 months total for leaves, and 4 months total for beets)
When they are 2-4 inches long, you can cut them, leaving about 1/2 inch of leaves at the base of your beet so the leaves will regrow. After about 3 months, you are ready to harvest your beets. Dig them out of the ground, brush off the dirt, and lovingly carry your new achievements inside. There they'll be gleefully slaughtered and roasted. :-D

Beets can be cooked in a variety of ways. The easiest for me is roasting them in the oven. Hold this for final note for 2 counts (about 2 hours between cleaning and cooking) and you're done with the song of beets!
To prepare your beets, slice off each end of the beet, and scrub the skin with the rough end of a sponge, or a tooth brush you reserve especially for scrubbing vegetables.  Next, move your shining beets to a casserole dish, toss with a little olive oil, and cover with a lid or aluminum foil. Cook them in the oven covered for an hour to hour and a half depending on their size. Beets also go well with a variety of spices and can be roasted with rosemary, garlic, oregano, sage or thyme, or can be roasted with vegetables like sweet peppers, tomatoes, carrots or artichoke.

You can ignore them during roasting, tuning your house with a fine sweet mood like background music,  while you watch a movie, do some exercise, drink some sangria, blow bubbles with the kids, plant more beet seeds in the ground...

Once you're finished, remove your beets from the oven, peel them, slice them or quarter them. Use them for garnish, flavor in salads, a delicious side-dish, or add them to your carrots and make a lovely juice in the juicer.

The songs involving beets, like songs of love, may be endless... Enjoy the music!

Roasted Beets with Olive oil:
Serves 4
Ingredients:

• 4 medium beets, scrubbed, with both top and bottom trimmed off 
• 1 TB olive oil
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Place your beets and olive oil in a casserole with a well-fitting lid.
3. Toss your beets to coat them in oil. Sprinkle lightly with black pepper 
4. Cover tightly with casserole lid or aluminum foil. Place in your preheated oven and bake for 1 hour and a half. 
5. Remove from oven and cut beets as you prefer. 

Nutrition Facts for one medium-size roasted beet
60 total calories, 9gm total carbohydrate, 4gm fiber, 0gm protein, 0.5gm fat
(0.5 Carbohydrate (0 NET carb), 0 Fat, and 0 protein exchanges)