Last autumn (2021) I decided to try growing beetroot. I was greatly encouraged the year previous by a lovely batch of autumn-sown spinach overwintering comfortably in our first raised bed. So I tried the same with the humble beet. In March this year, we harvested our first totally homegrown root (above).
How We Grow It:
I’ve sown my seeds of Boltardy beetroot outside in late September 2021, quite densely, directly in a raised bed, into drills, like you would carrots. The bed was prepared solely by spreading a top layer of compost, around an inch thick. Wasn’t at all worried about spacing as my intention was to start thinning the seedlings as they grew on, around late October through December. The thinnings went well in green salads.
Our autumn-sown and thinned beets overwintered in the ground as leafy greens. The ones we haven’t thinned out, that is. They don't do much growing through December-February so we couldn’t pick too many leaves off the plants at that stage. We harvested our first modestly swollen bulb in the last week of March (photo above). By end of April we took out most of them. This direct-sowing drill method is great if you like to eat this veg from just-sprouted to mature stage and don’t mind tending to your patch to thin them along the way.
This April I’ve tried a different way, inspired by the wonderful example of the no-dig pioneer Charles Dowding: multi-sowing into module trays inside our home and transplanting into our raised beds a month later. This has worked a treat. I used a mix of different varieties this time and already (late June) started to harvest the bigger bulbs, making room in each clump for the remaining ones to grow on. I find this method brilliant for two reasons: one - you can fit more full-grown beets in your designated space, which is so important in small scale gardening like ours; two - you get to spread out your harvest in time a bit so you can enjoy a fresh root or two every few days or so. Bliss!
How We Eat It:
The amazing thing about a beet is that you can eat it at various points of its growth, in various ways:
Young just-sprouted beet leaves are great eaten as nutritious ‘microgreens’, added to green salads for a burst of colour which is particularly lovely in winter (their flavour is very mild though). As the plants mature, leaves eventually become entirely uninteresting to taste, but it can be difficult to be sure when that time has arrived.
Sowing in early autumn gave us the opportunity to enjoy beet microgreens in those dull days of November. However small your microgreen thinnings, they are packed with fresh goodness. Particularly if you feed little ones, it can be challenging to get them to like any leaves. Microgreen beetroot actually stood a chance in our house! Perhaps it’s the interest of helping to sow and then seeing them come up? They actually grew beet microgreens on a windowsill before and loved it.
Young stems can be eaten raw (oh that crunch!) or cooked, added to soups, stews and quiches. They do shed their vibrant colour into whatever surrounding, though not as much as the root. We eat them at any stage of a young plant's life, but definitely before it bolts (ie. sends a tall flowering stem as the weather warms up). That’s when they become woody and sharp to the mouth (or sometimes all together tasteless). This can also happen without bolting if the plant simply gets a bit old. One way to test is to pick a single thicker stalk with leaf and sample - crunchy and sweet is good, tough and spicy is no.
Of course, there’s also the sweet root. My children love the old fashioned cooked or baked red beetroot. You might know what happens when a child likes a particular veg - correct, you make LOTS of it. Usually we’ll eat it peeled and sliced, on its own, as a snack. Younger roots don’t need cooking and taste like a creamier and less spicy version of radish, yum! I like it in green salad, with oranges and roasted sesame seeds. But ways to eat the bulb are countless! Throw thin raw strips into green salad (like they do in supermarkets in those bagged bistro salads, except way fresher). Add the cubed sweetness to stews and quiches, grate it into bread-dough or cake mixture, etc., etc...
... but what if you could eat the thing whole on the day, as is, because it’s at its best and you don t want to waste anything? There is a solution to this that’s shared across many nations with striking similarity - a beetroot soup. In March, when we picked our first whole beetroot, I was reminded by my mother of a special recipe for this very purpose - the young red beetroot soup (Polish Botwinka) and so that day I reached out to my culinary roots. Results were sadly unsatisfactory but only in terms of quantity. One beetroot, though reasonably sized, will make enough soup for one person and a half, I think. So I tried cooking it again soon after, this time with four beets, and that was perfect. I highly commend to you this simple yet happy soup!
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