I would think a tarp would be more than enough. I'm not even sure if you need any protection at all from 25F, but I'm not sure about beets in that regard. Most people just mound up some soil around them.

Brad there are all sorts of recipes for beets. Most start by boiling or baking them.
Do not peel before cooking.
The leaves can also be cooked as "greens".
If your library has Crocket's Victory Garden Cookbook ...... that is a terrific resource.
Have fun.

Steamed [the skins slip right off],sliced, buttered and from then on, you will always find room for beets in your garden!

I haven't had a lot of luck growing beets recently in my too-acidic, nutrient poor soil, but when I have succeeded I find that I love the greens even more than the roots.

I find plain, steamed beets a little dull and eat them mostly as pickled eggs with beets. I don't use nearly as much sugar as the standards recipes call for. Its supposed to be a vegetable, not a candy.

If I ever get a really GOOD crop of beets I'll experiment with different herbs for seasoning them.

As a child I hated pickle beetroot. But after experimenting with hot recipes I was converted and now we eat them pretty regularly. Roast them either alone or with other vegetables like carrots, parsnips, squash, potatoes - no need to peel, just scrub. Harvard beets - boil in their skins, slip the skins off. Cut up if large and heat through in a sauce made with a roux to which you add a little vinegar and sugar. Borscht - hundreds of recipes - I just make it up. Salad - boil in skins as above - dress any way you fancy - they combine well with orange segments or slices.

The milder ones like Flora sez in a roasted mix, try and grow some for the greens and then when you pull you can steam per Barb or roast with potatoes, but I like a slice with flavored olive oil and a little pepper.

Dan

Roasted, peeled, chilled and sliced. Make a basic vinaigrette dressing and flavor it with Cumin. An unlikely seeming, but absolutely amazing flavor combination.

Steve

Steve, thanks - I'm going to try that with the next crop!

:o)

Dan

Beets can be eatin raw. They will sweeten up a bit if you pull them up with the roots and sit them in water overnight. Then just peel and discard the bitter skin and add the remaining root grated or sliced to any raw food dish. Cooking destroys the folate B vitamins in beet root.

I like beats best at thinning time. when they are about the size of a quarter, pull and wash with the leaves still on.steam add vinegar top with a little parmesan cheese.

Ravenh,

That sounds good! Do you peel them or just eat the whole plant?

When they are that small I eat the whole plant. In the fall the skin is tough so I peel them and don't eat the greens. swiss chard is better for greens then. I may be a little to fussy thanks to gramp. He would send us to pick corn for supper and turn the timer to 20 mins. If the buzzer went off before the shocked corn was in the boiling water he would put it in the pig food hopper and send us back to pick more. He planted his last garden when he was 95.I figure in another 20 years I can compete with what he tried to teach me. I'll be 74 then.

Roast chicken with beets, potatoes, and carrots (roasted in the same pan). The first time I tried that, beets were added to my garden plans forever =) I'm not too crazy about the pickled ones, myself...

And sometime I'm going to try borscht.

You can just pop them in the microwave. They cook perfectly and there's no messy red juice to deal with. No need to peel. Put butter on them and you're done!

Peeled and shredded raw on salad. That was pretty much standard when I was a kid. We do love them pickled too.

In my opinion, there's roasted and then there's everything else. The simplest way is to rub a fine layer of olive oil on the outside, then wrap each beet in Al foil and bake until a knife goes through easily. My favorite way is to roast a pan of roots & bulbs (esp onions & garlic) with the beets in a miso/soy/curry sauce. This is a good way to cook fennel too.

WOW, lot of great feedback!

Thanks!

I'm using this as my archive for beet eating!

Ingredients

* 3 medium beets
* 4 cups mixed salad greens
* 1 onion, sliced into thin rings
* 1 apple - peeled, cored and thinly sliced
* 1/2 avocado - peeled, pitted and sliced
* 1/2 cup toasted chopped walnuts
* 3/4 cup apple cider
* 2/3 cup cider vinegar
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 1 teaspoon prepared mustard
* 1/4 teaspoon celery seed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Wash beets, and place in a baking dish with 1/4 cup water. Cover and bake for 1 hour or until tender. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
2. Whisk together the apple cider, vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, mustard and celery seed.
3. Peel and slice the beets, combine with the vinaigrette and refrigerate at least half an hour.
4. Divide the greens among four salad plates. Drain beets, and reserve dressing. Decoratively arrange overlapping layers of beet, onion, apple, and avocado on the greens. Drizzle with reserved dressing. Sprinkle on the nuts, and serve at once.

Here is a link that might be useful: Apple, Beet and Avocado Salad