Bring on the Beets

I have another small batch canning adventure...

with beets.

My in laws always do a very huge garden every year. And by huge I am talking about 1 whole acre. Their beets this year have come up in droves. We thinned 2 laundry baskets worth of beets and greens. It barely made a dent but I didn't want to process any more than that for the time being.

So I found a nice pickled beet recipe at Allrecipies.com  The original recipe calls for a whopping 12 pounds of peeled sliced beets. (No thank you) I am not prepping beets for the end of days here. Also, if I was prepping food for the end of days I don't think I would choose beets.  I think I would go with brownie mix and Doritos. Because really, who is going to notice a few extra pounds on my hips when the world is on fire anyways?

I am not trying to speak for everyone here but I do not eat beets 1 quart at a time.  At best I use 4 or 5 slices on a salad maybe 2 times a week.  So small batch it is. I will adjust the recipe to call for just 4 lbs of beets.  Personally I think 2 to 4 lbs of something is a really nice small batch size. This will make 8 half pint jars of beets or 4 if you half the recipe.

1 3/4 cups white vinegar
1 1/3 cup sugar
1 1/3 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoon pickling salt
1 teaspoon ground cloves (optional)
2 tea ground cinnamon (optional)

4 lbs of sliced beets

I like this recipe for 2 reasons. One it isn't calling for boiling the beets before putting them in the pickling brine so I feel like less nutritional value is lost to the water that gets dumped down the sink. Second I like the combination of cloves and cinnamon over just one or the other. I will also make half the batch without the spices for more savory salads.

Well that's it. Combine brine ingredients bring to a boil add beets and simmer for 15 min or so then follow the sterilizing and canning process.