Can I can?

A few weeks ago, the beets were a good size – and getting a little crowded – so I decided to do a little canning experiment. I did some research^[1] and discovered that if I pickled the beets I wouldn’t need to buy a pressure canner^[2] so all I’d need is a big pot to boil the filled jars in.

I found a few quart-size canning jars we had collected over the years, so I only needed to acquire some new lids (a few bucks at Wegman’s). Other than that, the only other newly incurred expenditures were time and electricity.

A summary of the lessons learned:

1. Give yourself enough time. If you don’t want to feel like you’re rushing, you’ll want to do some preparation and planning before you dive in and chop stuff up. I did not do this.
2. As a corollary to number 1, make sure you have enough of everything you need, like sugar.^[3]
3. What looks like a lot in the beginning doesn’t look like so much at the end. A blue bin filled with beets and their greens became two-and-a-half quarts of pickled beets. It makes sense when you think about it, but is a bit underwhelming when you look at all the dirty bowls and pots.
4. Pickling is wicked easy – it’s a shame we’ve become so detached from basic skills like this.

A blue bin full of beets:

Separated stems and greens, and beets ready for boiling:

Getting ready to boil the beets:

Blanched beet greens ready for the freezer:

Cooking the beets in vinegar, water, sugar, and salt:

The result – two jars of pickled beets. Mmm. Beets.

1. This site was the most useful [back]
2. I have since discovered a co-worker with one he’s willing to lend me next time around [back]
3. a tip of the hat to the Cook family – I had never actually borrowed a cup of sugar before! [back]