Saturday, September 5, 2009

Beets

My mother-in-law helped me bottle the beets from my garden this weekend! I was looking forward to it all week. It was very fun and we had a great time. I am grateful to have someone to learn from. My mom always canned and bottled and I helped her some but I think I was never around enough to learn the whole entire process. So, this was basically my first time officially canning. We even did one batch of peaches that she had, too, just for fun!

I'm grateful for a garden that grows and for harvest season. I'm excited to learn more and get canning more! This post is mostly for me to be able to remember how to do this. But anyone else is welcome to see and learn!
Beets in the garden just prior to pulling them out of the ground and cutting off tops

Wash beets to get dirt off, so that you can use beet juice for the water in the liquid mixture

Boil beets for 1 hour with skins on and about 1 inch of the stems left on (to keep them from bleeding out too much)

Boils all over and makes a big mess!
Then they slip right out of their skins! Cut beets up to fit into the bottles. Either slices or quartered chunks
Boil the lids, (put lids in back to back)

Make liquid mixture with sugar, vinegar, and water (from pot where beets boiled)
Wipe off lids with a cloth, and pour the liquid in to the lower rim of the bottle
Put lids and rings on
Place jars into the big boiler
And after boiling for 20 minutes (I think that's right)...

...THE FINISHED PRODUCT!!

5 comments:

Carol said...

I enjoyed your 'step by step' instructions on how to can beets. Awesome! Yes, I did do all this canning, but you were not old enough to care about learning how to do it. You were a great help in doing whatever was needed though. You could write your own cookbook on canning now!

VicandNanc said...

Vic would love if I canned! I am more of a freezer person though. It took forever to cut up all of our squash & freeze it... and I still have plenty more coming! Will's mom is seriously him with a wig on! I can't believe how identical they are!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful canning job Heidi! It looks like you enjoyed yourself. I like the pics too. How is everything going for you? Anything new going on?
Hope your doing well.
Love,
Pa
Jamie

Kenny and Jamie Garrett said...

So cool! I love beets--I like them more just boiled with salt and butter on them though. But that's so great that you got to can them! We really do need to get together soon. Kenny's been working a lot of hours lately, so I'll have to keep in touch with you on when is a good time (weekends preferrably). Maybe we'll have to do Sunday dinner or something. You're still in Preston right?

BrookieT said...

I see the family resemblance with you mother-in-law! Ah, isn't canning fun? You get to "put up in store" all the fruits of your labors! It is so rewarding. (And symbolic too!)