As many of you know, it was a particularly good beet year for the farm. They grew well, are delicious, and some grew quite large (1.5 lbs plus!) but stayed tasty. Well, this week we finally got around to processing some of these lovely beets to add some variety to the farmstand.
More beet puree for those who want to take your beets straight to Red Velvet Brownies & cake or beet pancakes, Applesauce/Beet bread (a new delicious test, who needs banana bread!). We wondered if one could even substitute beets for the great carrot souffle Donna made last week. What a color that’d be.
Anyway- yes, beets. Not only did they do well, but they are touted as one of the best foods for you – and clearly so much fun with that color.
And while some may malign the lovely beet, around here they are loved by the farmers and certainly the pigs. It is probably their favorite vegetable, right up there with spinach! Fortunately, when we are processing beets, there are always some ends or soft ones to share with the pigs. Saveur magazine highlighted so many good ways to enjoy the gorgeous beet! More recipes on our website as well, just search beet or click on the beet cloud tag.
Ramona & Amelia not only enjoyed the ends but also the beet cooking water. It was hard to even get the bucket to their bowls as they could smell it coming it and were trying hard to get their mouths right into the bucket. Their snouts were a little pink, but they got their vitamin dosage!
So, this was a week of focus on the beets amidst a season of beets, but our love of the beet just grows as we find more fun ways to enjoy them.
As Tom Robbins noted in Jitterbug Perfume,
The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is the more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent not passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious.