Processing Beets - Saturday

A nice little bump in the squash with just shy of 10 pounds. They continue to produce a bit but the powdery mildew is getting the better of the plants. This year they lasted a lot longer than prior years before succumbing to it.

Friday I picked the larger tomatoes and yesterday I went through and got all the cherry tomatoes that have any color to them. We are getting to the point of having enough to start canning them.

With our Azure order we got a new book. It is really interesting as it is preserving without canning or freezing. I can say the oil storage is not really something I would do aside from a few very select items. The salting is quite interesting as there are a number of veggies that are salted that I had not read a method for before. I am stoked to have this in our food preservation book shelf, which is getting nicely full of very useful books.

In the afternoon we started processing the beets. I had them all stored in the orange tub in the basement since I harvested and cleaned them. There was very little molds on them but they got a good rinsing before going into the boiling water.

The books say to boil the beets for about half an hour... Yeah, that was no where near long enough. It took 1.5 hours of boiling before the monster beets were soft and the skins would slide off.

While the bets boiled @stryeyz worked on the chick's legs. In hopes that it might just be splay leg she put some small bandage braces on it to see if it would help. It still isn't standing but it is at least staying sitting upright now.

One the beets were cooked enough I dropped them into the tub with cold water. We slipped the skins and the tops off which was SUPER easy. Way easier than we had expected. Beets don't seem like the skins would slide off but holy crap is it cool when they do. The beets then got sliced into half inch thick slices and tossed into the bowl.

With the largest all in the cooling water I got the rest of the beets that are solid and not soft put into the boiling water.

The pressure canner went on the stove to preheat and test it while the smaller beets heated to boil.

7 quart jars got packed tight with slices and then covered in boiling water.

The beets look amazing and taste just as good. With the processing we kept some out to have with dinner. They are sweet enough they are perfectly fine all by themselves. Though I am a huge fan of honey on the cooked beets, similar to carrots.

Put on the new Harvest Guard lids for the first time and got the jars in the pressure canner to process for 35 minutes at 11psi. I let the pressure get a bit to high and I think it pulled some of the water out of the jars. More reason to keep a better eye on it next time.

Once the smaller beets were cooked they went into the cooling water and then all got skinned and sliced into the bowl. I had barely enough room to get the lid on the bowl which was set outside for the night. Today we are going to make a batch of pickled beets with the rest.

It finally rained last night and we got 0.16 inches. All the trees and plants look so much better with the dust and ash washed off. I am offing the rooster today. Ass hat is being kept outside and is crowing at the first light. I am ready to strangle him, but instead will just cut his head off.

I have what really feels like the beginning to my story, 2 pages, over 800 words with a couple pages of scene notes. I will be writing on this before NaNo for sure but will be able to use it still.

For more information about our farm:
Fleming Family Farm
FLEMING FAMILY FARM, LLC
Sustainable & Organic Methods | Heirloom Produce

All images are original works of Fleming Family Farm unless otherwise notated and credited.

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