Welcome Idaho!

I think Digit will be delighted to have you posting here on RMG! Hes way up near Coeur dÂAlene, so youÂre not near each other, but youÂre still a fellow Idahoan!

Others will be along with their own recommendations, but I grow Warrior beets (Harris). I picked them because my brother in IL grows them, and they can get absolutely HUGE and still be tender and sweet. His get at least twice as big as mine, but then he has ILLINOIS soil! Mine are getting bigger each year as my soil improves.

I also grow Royal Chantenay carrots (his too), which can also get HUGE and still be delicious. Same thing, mine are less than half the size of his, but also getting bigger each yearÂand would be bigger yet if I ever happened to get around to thinning.

I also grow plain old Harris Model parsnips. IÂm mentioning those three things, because theyÂre the ones I store over winter. Here are pics of the beets and carrots. (ThatÂs a 6" ruler in the pic)

And hereÂs how I store them. This might not work for you if theyÂre buried under too much snow all winter that you couldnÂt get to them. Here in Denver when we get snow, it all melts back off in a couple days, so access is no problemÂand this winter we havenÂt had any snow!!!

The first pic is of two (short) rows each of the beets, carrots, and parsnips. I clean much of the foliage off of the veggies before covering them up, so it really doesnÂt look like much, but thereÂs a lot more there underground than it looks like. The parsnips have almost all the foliage cut off of them.

Second pic is of the same area after I dumped all the maple leaves on top of them for insulation. Any leaves that donÂt pack down can be used, but maple work really well. I get mine from my neighbor across the street when they rake (and bag) theirs. Cottonwood or other poplar leaves donÂt work because they mat down and "slime" if they get wetÂand since they do pack down, they donÂt provide much insulation.

And the third pic is after I put a sheet over the whole thing to keep the leaves from blowing away.

Whenever I want some over winter, I just pull back the sheet, push the leaves off of whatever I want, and dig enough to last me for a while. It works really well! I also covered some leeks the same way this past fall, but I havenÂt taken the time to dig any of those up yet, so I donÂt know for sure that it worked.

HereÂs a pic of the parsnips with an 18" ruler next to them. They always amaze me, because below the top 8" or so of improved soil, itÂs HARD CLAY that theyÂre growing into! I always have a heck of a time digging them up, so I sure donÂt know how they manage to grow into that stuff!

IÂm not aware of any particular varieties of beets keeping any better than any other, but maybe some do work better. My brother in IL stores his Warrior beets (and carrots) in a BIG bucket with dry sand poured over them, in a cold out building, and his last all winter too. I always wondered if that system would work as well out here tho, with the dry air. IÂve never tried it that way since the in-ground method works so well for me.

When you have time, sign in on the WhoÂs Here thread and tell us a little more about yourself.

Welcome to RMG,
Skybird

We're just now eating the last of the 'golden beets' from last year, and they kept very well - I used a huge tub full of peat moss - washed the dirt off the beets, trimmed the leaves and roots, put down a layer of peat moss, layer of beets, layer of moss, layer of beets, say slightly less than a bushel of beets in one plastic tub. I poured about half a gallon of water every month on the top, but it's very dry here. The beets were all great, none of them went off.

The deer are busy digging up my carrots that stayed in the garden.....

Thanks for the welcome and info Skybird. So nice of you to take the time to describe your method for overwintering your root crops. I have been thinking of doing the same with some of our root crops this season. We have harvested carrots into the winter in the past with similar approach.

We have an abundance of Aspen and Poplar leaves here. Get them from our own yard and many neighbors bring me their collections for my compost pile. Interesting to learn that oak leaves are a much better choice for overwintering mulch/insulation.

I have had access to some straw bales in past seasons. Perhaps I can use straw as my insulation/mulch.

Your Warrior beets and Model parsnips look wonderful. I'll have to keep those in mind. Right now I'm thinking of purchasing the beet mix that Bountiful Gardens offers, as it will give me a lot of variety.

We kept carrots in a bucket in moist sand one winter. Kind of messy and the carrots didn't store all that well for us. I'm excited to try storing some in ground this year. Thanks for the help. I'll check in over at Whos Here in 2009 shortly.

Great to be enjoying RMG, Chris

Thanks David. I grew Golden beets once and germination was poor. Had some of that same seed left over the following year. Planted a red var. (Detroit I think) and gave the left over Goldens another try while I was at it. Germination good all around. Showed me that my problem was user error.

I bet some of the beets I get with the Bountiful Garden beet mix I'm getting will include some GBs. I'll try and store some and see how they keep for us. (if we can keep from eating them all:) Sounds like we will have good success with keeping them. Thanks a lot, Chris

ps - I bet those deer are happy!

Hi Chris, I am delighted to see another person from Idaho but it takes me quite awhile to look at threads where I don't seem to have any knowledge on the subject. Of course, that never stops me from posting once I'm actually here . . .

Okay, I've got 2 ideas for you (neither of which has to do with storage beets ;o):

Burpee Golden had poor germination for me when I've tried them in the past. However, last year I purchased Touchstone seed. This one did very, very well. It is apparently quite new but if you want to try a yellow beet - I'll suggest that variety.

Bull's Blood . . . I don't know. Yeah, that dark, dark leaf appeals but out of almost all that I've grown for fresh use, that one grew about the poorest. Honestly, I think the dark pigmentation interferes with photosynthesis, or something.

And, baby beets are just about my favorite veggie! I grow Ace regularly but have had good success with Skybird's Warrior and Early Wonder and a few others.

. . . just my 2 cents.

digitSteve

Hi Steve,
Great to hear from you and great to be living in Idaho! Thanks for your spare change - greatly appreciate your input. We have enjoyed real good success with Early Wonder and Early Wonder Tall. We love beets too, so will want to get around to trying Ace and Sbirds Warrior. :)

This is my first year to try growing beets, not even sure we will eat them. Wintersowed some Golden Grex from Fedco last weekend, so I'll have to see what kind of germination I get. Did I read somewhere that each seed is actually a seed cluster, and that thinning or transplanting to space them out is required?

Bonnie

Yesiree, You will get anywhere from one, two, three, or four sprouts per seed cluster. We thin to one (cutting off the growing shoots we want to thin out, rather than pulling out the nixxed seedlings, which can be hard on the neighboring one you want to grow). Beetsryumy!!!!!!!!!!

When you say beetsryumy, are you referring to the greens, or the root part? My family won't eat cooked greens, so I thought I would use the root part in salads, but I would love to hear how you use them. A recipe would be great too : )

Bonnie

We enjoy both beet greens and beet root. I think we like the beet root the best. So sweet and nice. We enjoy young tender beet greens in salads. My wife cooks beet roots up by steaming them or roasting them. She uses beets in many recipes. Your question about recipes got me looking for some. The link below is to an article about beets from a back issue of Mother Earth News that you might find interesting. It includes some beet recipes. I haven't read the entire article yet, but I'm interested to do so. I scanned it quickly and see that there is some info on beets that keep well. Just the kind of info I'm looking for. Take care and happy gardening.

Skybird,

Okay, Darren is looking over my shoulder and cannot imagine that you left your beets in the ground over winter!!

He asked, "Don't they freeze?"
I answered, "They are insulated!"
"Yeah, but don't they freeze?

So, now we need to clarify: DO they freeze?

Thanks!!
J.

Just for you Jennifer! I wasnt even gonna sign in today! Just got back from a trip, am really, really tired, and have to get up at 0145 tomorrow morning to drive all the way back out to the airport just to do a stupid SFO turn! Grrrr! But will answer you now or this will probably be forgotten by the time I wake up again!

The beets do NOT freeze! If they did, the ground would be frozen and I wouldnt be able to dig them up! Not to mention, they wouldnt be worth digging up anymore! Maple leaves are really, really good insulation, and I have a good 10-12" on top of themand well past the edges of where theyre growing. Its probably more than Id need, but after growing them all summer, I dont want to take any chances.

So, Darren! My beets do NOT freeze! Neither do my carrots! Neither do my parsnips, tho a good shot of freezing weather is supposed to be good for themmake them sweeterso I wait to cover everything till weve had a couple pretty good freezes. Dont know if it makes the beets or carrots any sweeter, but every thing comes out just fine, and is absolutely delicious when I dig them! And if I ever get around to checking them, Ill find out if it worked with my leeks this year!

See you all when I wake up again,
Skybird

Thank you, Skybird!! I hope you are sleeping!!

I don't know why he was so sure they would freeze, he just was. And, being from northern Ontario which is covered with maples, you'd think he'd know!

He says now, "She should right a book or something!"

Your produce looks so good! He says, "I would be interested in eating the carrot greens and the parsnip greens." I, personally, want to eat those carrots!

Thank you for sharing :)

Also, when any of you have a chance to post, do you NOT dig up the roots? I assume they are just left in the ground, foliage trimmed as needed, covered, dug up only when ready.

I know that seems obvious, but I've never stored root veggies outside of the crisper! For some reason, we were imagining digging them up and putting them back in the ground.

...crazy veggie ideas...

Thank you!!!!!!!

J.

Not in bed yet! Hope to get there by 8:00, but had to wash my hair and EAT! Have only had Cheerios and peanuts so far today! Glamourous job I have!!!

You do NOT dig them up! And the soil should be just barely dampnot wet and not all the way dry. You dont need to cut the tops back/off, but Ive discovered that it makes it easier to dig them up if I clean them up someand they dont need the tops for anything once theyre covered and arent growing anymore anyway. But since you get a lot of snow, theyd need to be in a place where they wouldnt be too buried to get to over winter. Some snow would be good! Its a really good insulator too!

My food should be hot by now!

Buh-bye,
Skybird

My neighbor uses a piece of old carpet to cover his carrots and beets. Thats all, it would seem to me that wouldn't be enough to keep it from freezing, but it is.

I just left a row cover over the veggie garden in the fall, since I had planted a late crop of lettuce. The lettuce didn't survive, but the carrots that I found the other day seemed just fine.

I dig carrots, parsnips, and celery root (celeriac) out of the veggie garden in the Fall. Then dig a square hole not too far from the backdoor steps.

The top of the square hole is lined with 4 boards to hold back the soil and I begin standing the roots in there - like troops at attention. After covering the whole thing with about 8 to 10 inches of soil and a foot of leaves - those veggies are good for the Winter.

There's a fridge in the carport but everything freezes in there, so it is empty during the Winter. And, the storage room in the basement is filled with dahlia roots and glad bulbs (I got my priorities, right?).

I think the veggies should be fine in peat moss in the basement over the Winter but that little hole in the herb garden works just fine. However, what I've never done . . . is put any beets in there.

digitS '

What a neat approach. How deep do you dig your hole?

Hmmm, wow, I'm glad I decided to tune in to this thread. I love beets, but have never cooked one myself, have only gotten them at restaurants on salads. They are amazing on a salad with goat cheese (Haystack Mountain is, of course, the best) and balsamic vinegar!

Anyway, I just got into Winter Sowing and so I bought so many seeds -- and decided to start some beets this year! Even better, they are all sprouting and look so distinctive from the other sprouts, so it's pretty cool. I have Detroit Dark Red & Early Wonder. Glad to hear about thinning them and learning some methods of storing them, which I'll have to think about the possibilities... I can't wait to try them! Skybird, I wish I had the ground to use your method, thanks for sharing such great pictures.

Hi Sis K, Good luck with your crops of beets and all your sowings. Thanks for touching base. Your comments about Winter Sowing reminded me I want to go over to the part of the GardenWeb forums and learn what you all are up to. Best, Chris

Sorry Chris, I didn't realize that there was a question here for me to answer.

The hole I dig in my backyard herb garden each Fall is about 12 - 14 inches deep. But, I like to slant the "floor" so that the tops the tall & shorts of everything are about the same level. So, I may need to go deeper than that at one end with the long parsnips.

I usually have some 3 foot boards around for lining it. The mound of dirt taken out will cover the harvested roots standing in there cheek by jowl. And then about 12 inches of leaves can be piled on top. That's the extent of it.

Right now, I've got quite a few celery roots (celeriac) out there. That isn't the best to have left for last. They will start growing sooner than the carrots & parsnips but DW has bought celery several times at the store over Winter. With all our snow, it was a bit difficult to get out there & get it uncovered . . . easier to chain up the pickup, pile in, and take off down the road to the sooper market.

(Fortunately, we have purchased a bag of spuds so can have mashed potatoes with celery root with our roast beef dinner tomorrow. Pretty soon, it will be too warm to fire up the oven for roasting. :o)

S'

Sister K,

You have to cook them yourself!! It is easy and they turn out delicious. I steam them after cutting off the tail and top. Darren uses the tops in either salads or wilted warm salads with kale and chard, garlic, lemon juice, minced garlic and a small amount of soy sauce and sesame oil. I use the tails with other veggie's tid bits for broth stock to use later.

I don't peel the whole thing, I just use a veggie scrubber because they are covered in dirt. I lightly peel the top half because it is usually so rumpled that the dirt gets stuck. I either:

Quarter them and steam them until a knife goes in somewhat easily or very easily.
Or
Make them into smaller pieces and bake them on a sheet with other root veggies and garlic drizzled in olive oil and black pepper. Baby root veggies are my favourite for this!
Or
Par-cook them and add them to a soup or just add them to a soup as they are, depending on how long the other veggies in the soup are going to take to cook.

Steamed beets either go into salad once cooled or get eaten just as they are. Baked beets get eaten as a side dish. Slightly less cooked beets get thrown into a soup or stew.

I think you'll enjoy them!!

J.

Thanks for the follow up Digit. No problem on the delayed response. I wouldn't see any questions to me if they were posted, as it can be a while between my visits to the site. Also - so much stuff to see and read about - all great info and entertaining and easy to read bits and bites here and there. Thanks for the info - great to learn about your root storage ways! Chris

Jclepine -- thanks for the suggestions, I copied everything down so I can reference it when I have fresh beets! Now, I have two questions that are pretty stupid:

(1) I read about the beet seed being a cluster and thinning the way eatsivy says above. What about carrots & parsnips, does one seed=one vegetable you can eat?

(2) Also, how do you know when to pick root veggies like carrots, parsnips & beets? Just after a certain number of days, pull one up and hope for the best? Thanks!

(1) carrots & parsnips, one seed=one vegetable - Always, there's some kind of law that requires it ;o).
(2). . . when to pick root veggies like carrots, parsnips & beets? - Who was it that described maturing root veggies as "bosomy?" When they are, then you "pull one up and hope for the best."

Plant lots!!

S'

Hi Sis,

I had been planning to get back here to reply to you too, but just hadnt gotten it done yet.

But first! Ive said this many times before, but probably not since you joined us! The only stupid question around here is the one you dont ask! So no more talk about stupid questions! :-)

Beets are the only compound seed, of the things we generally grow in our veggie gardens, that I know of, so your carrots, parsnips and other stuff will just produce one plant from each seed. Carrot seed, however is very small, so unless youre VERY persnickety about how you plant it, youll probably need to thin anyway. "Pelleted" carrot seed is available for some varieties, and that means that they coat the seed to make each seed big enough to easily place it right where you want it.

And you can start to pull the root crops pretty much anytime they get big enough to look like whatever theyre supposed to look like. If you wait till they grow just a little bit, you can "thin" and get tiny baby beets and carrots to cook. When they get bigger, you can usually see enough at the surface of the soil to have some idea of how big they are.

With the parsnips, tho, I dont dig any of those until fall. Ive heard theyre bettersweeterif they stay outside for at least one good freeze, so I let them grow all summer and just wait for them. But I think you could dig some of them earlier too if you wanted too. Dont know if the "baby veggie" thing works with them!

With beets, I like the beet greens in saladsjust like lettucewith lettuce, spinach, etc., or even by themselves. You can cook them like spinach too, but Im not so wild about them like thatbut you might want to try it.

And I love the beet roots cooked! I like them a lot sweet and sour pickled (my mothers recipewith my own changessimple recipe, will post if youre interested), or just cooked until barely tender and then eaten hot with (real) butter and salt. Or they're good cooked just tender and then julienned cold for on saladschef's salad style, as youve already mentioned. Or cold, cut up, with your favorite salad dressing on them.

To get the skins off I think the easiest way to do it is to stick them in the pressure cooker until just tender (time depends on how big they areit's a learning process), and then you can very easily "slip" the skins off under cold running water. That way your hands don't get red! To pressure cook them, leave part of the tails and about an inch of the tops on. They'll slip off along with the skin!

Now I want beets! Will have to get out the pressure cooker tomorrow!
Skybird

P.S. Jennifer, if you use beets in soup, doesnt it sort of wind up looking like borscht???

Sister K, this is my first year with beets, or parsnips, but with the carrots, I feel around the base of the plant, and you can feel the shoulders of the carrot. If it feels about the width you are looking for than twist on the carrot, and pull it out. I learned not to just pull on the leafy part though, as it will often break off. I'm guessing that parsnips and beets would work the same way.

Bonnie

Some folks I know swear by a grated, raw beet 'anacanna' crushed pineapple salad.

I haven't tried that yet, it just seems weird.

SisterK,
Yay! I think you'll enjoy trying different beet recipes! Also, one word of warning in case you are not familiar with eating beets--don't be alarmed when your pee is red-ish!!! Perfectly normal.

Skybird,
I should have mentioned that they do turn the stock red-ish! But, I often use golden beets. When I steam the red ones a bit first, lots of the red comes out.

Funny, I've never peeled them!! I like the skins and the way they peel in my mouth.

David,
I have tried that!! Not on my own but many a "healthy" salad bar offers shredded raw beets as well as or in place of the usually cooked beets. It is really good but I prefer them cooked.

Some friends who are "raw foodists" use a dehydrator and shred them and press them with garlic and other tid bits. They call them "crackers" and, oddly enough, they are very tasty and slightly addicting...like all crackers are!

I thought of one more thing to do with beets that I didnt think about last nite! The Pennsylvania Dutch make something called Red Beet Eggs. Its hard boiled eggs, pickled with beet juice. I was curious about what kind of recipes you could find online, so I looked and none of them sounded quite right, so I got out my "very authentic," 1966 Pennsylvania Dutch Cook Bookthat I bought when I lived (briefly) back in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, so I could look up some of the recipes my (ex) mother-in-law, CONSERVATIVE Mennonite, made! In case anybodys interested, Im gonna post it here! (The cookbook also has recipes for "genuine" Schoo-fly pie, funnel cakes, corn soup, rivel soup, stuffed heart, scrapple, souse, and mincemeat (A Christmas and Thanksgiving necessity), starting with 4 boiled calves tongues and 2½ pounds of suetand a quart of brandy and 2 quarts of whiskeytho that doesnt sound very Mennonite to me!!!)

Red Beet Pickled Eggs 2 cups (about 1 lb.) young beets \[If cooked tender, I dont know why theyd need to be "young!"\] 1/4 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup vinegar 1/2 cup cold water 1/2 tsp. salt Small piece stick cinnamon 3 or 4 whole cloves 6 hard boiled eggs Wash beets; cut off leaves and stems, leaving on about 1" of the root end. Cook until tender. Drain and skin. \[cut up if big!\] Boil together, for 10 minutes, beets and all remaining ingredients except the eggs. Let beets stand in this liquid for several days. Add whole, hard boiled, shelled eggs to the liquid and let stand in refrigerator for 2 days.

All the recipes I found online just used white sugar and didnt have the spices in them. I think that would make a pretty big difference! When I lived back there I also discovered my MILs barbeque (sloppy joe style), tho extremely similar to my mothers, tasted better than hers. When I asked my MIL how she made it, the only difference was that she used brown sugar instead of white! Ive made it with brown sugar ever since!

I got my beets cooked today! Separated the bigger ones from the smaller ones and did it in two pot fullsto keep from overcooking the smaller ones. And since they dont keep all that long once theyre cooked, I guess Ill be peeing red for a while! ;-) Gonna have some hot with butter later, and will cook up a batch of the sweet and sour ones, and that still leaves lots left for eating coldor heating up more with butter! Beets keep for a LONG time in the fridge if theyre not cooked. I cooked all the ones I had inside, but still have more outside in the ground. Were gonna have colder weather for the next week or so, but otherwise, if our weather stays warm, Im gonna have to dig up the rest of what I have outside. Even under their blanket of leaves, they start to grow again when it gets too warm outside!

Happy beeting,
Skybird

Jennifer, beet skin is pretty rough, and I dont think Id like them if they werent peeledand its SO easy to slip the skins off once theyre cooked. I kind of think I wouldnt like them raw either, but your "beet crackers" sound good!