Beet harvest

[vgqn]

The beets were getting ideas about bolting, so I harvested the lot of them yesterday. I grow Cylindra, a variety that is cylindrical rather than round. They can also get quite large without getting woody. I didn't weigh any of these, but that's a standard chef's knife laying next to them!

I've already cooked all of the greens and frozen them. Yay me! The beets themselves I will slowly use over the next couple of months. Happily, they do store well.

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Comments

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

You've taught me a new word. Up until now I'd have thought that "bolting" meant they packed their bags and hastily sneaked out of your garden in the dead of night. But "going to seed," which I find that it means, is a term I know.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

Heh, even as a gardener, I do think of the image of plants packing up and sneaking away. But the other congruences in meaning is that bolting seems to happen relatively quickly, the flower stalk grows 'bolt' upright, and even that the plants are 'getting away' from the gardener in terms of usability. Okay, the last is a stretch, but I'm sure the first two informed the original use of the word for this phenomenon.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

So the posture of the flower is the immediately visible sign of the impending problem?

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

More the existence of the flower stalk at all, but it generally comes straight up from the center of the plant.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

I first heard "bolting" in reference to lettuce, and it amused me considerably.

Those are SOOMMMMEEE beets there.

[pameladean]

Now those are BEETS! And that's a great "pleased but weary gardener" photo of you.

It might be more "wary of camera" than "weary," but whatever.

P.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

Definitely weary, not wary. I had actually asked Mike to take the picture, and I'm quite pleased with it as well.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Nice!

How do you store beets? Just plain, wrapped, in the fridge?

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

Yup, just in plastic bags in the fridge. I've kept beets for months (not that I recommend that.) But it's important that there not be any leaves or stems attached because those decay quickly, which is why I cooked the greens immediately.

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

The beets were getting ideas about bolting . . .
That would be what they were growing legs for, then.

[wild-patience.livejournal.com]

You and your beets look lovely.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

Thank you!