Easy- care beets for the home garden
A delicious green salad topped with roasted baby beets, seeds and crumbled goat cheese was served at a local winery for dinner — it was one of the best winter salads I’ve eaten recently.
It made me wonder why I’m not growing a few beets in my home garden. That’s about to change.
Our dedicated vegetable garden is gone, but given their attractive leaves, colourful stems and self sufficient nature, a small patch of beets could discreetly be tucked into a sunny flower border and no one would be the wiser. Beets also work well in containers, a planter filled with beets would be handy to have on the patio by the kitchen door. I could just step outside to snip some baby beet greens to add to a summer salad.
The folks at the National Garden Bureau ( www. ngb. org) have declared 2018 the year of the beet and have provided a wealth of information about this easy to grow, tasty vegetable. Let’s take a closer look.
From its humble beginnings around the Mediterranean, the table beet ( beta vulgaris) has spread around the world. Historically, beets have been consumed in many ways: medicinally in ancient Rome, fresh ( both the greens and the roots) in salads, made into soups ( think borscht), pickled slices and shreds to name just a few. In some parts of the world, it is a menu staple. Today, beets are popular as pickles or as fresh greens and roots. Yes, sugar beets, a rough, white coneshaped relative, are of the same family but they are mostly grown commercially for sugar production.
Beets are high in fibre, vitamins A and C and have more iron than most vegetables. They are also rich in antioxidants, calcium, potassium, phosphorus and folic acid. A beet’s red colour comes from an antioxidant called betalain, which was used as an ingredient in makeup that produced the ‘ red as a beet’ colouring. Betalain is an excellent source of red colour pigment and can be used as natural dyes or food colouring agents.
Today, beet juice is being marketed as a natural energy drink, powders are encapsulated as nutritional enhancements and slices are being dried as chips. More conservative approaches are to roast the beet or thinly slice it in a fresh beet salad. Baby beet leaves have gained popularity as a salad green in recent years. As a superfood, beets are gaining popularity with all segments of the market. Merlin is a hybrid variety that is high in sugar content and excellent in fresh salads or juiced.
How to grow
Beets are a bi- annual crop, flowering in their second year of growth. The roots can be grown annually in 40 to 65 days depending on climate and desired root size. Plant seeds directly into the soil, one centimetre deep and 2.5 to 5 cm inches apart in rows or blocks and keep evenly moist to encourage germination. Beet seeds are actually little clusters of two to four seeds. Thin out ( and be sure to eat) seedlings by pinching or snipping when they are 2.5 to 5 cm tall to encourage larger well- shaped roots for harvest. After thinning, plants should be spaced about 8 cm apart.
They prefer slightly acidic soils and limited nitrogen; rich, sandy loam is ideal, but they will also accept average soil. Beets like about 2.5 cm of water per week. They will tolerate cool temperatures and are usually planted in the spring or early fall and can withstand cooler temperatures before harvest. Roots are normally harvested either by gently pulling the tops or digging the roots when they are about 6 to 8 cm in diameter. Root size is strongly determined by sowing density. Beets grow well in containers also. Plant in succession every two weeks for a steady supply of beets, do not plant during the heat of the summer, wait until the cooler days of early September to plant a fall crop.
Beets are typically red to purple in colour, both internally and externally, but some varieties are yellow or red with white rings internally, like Touchstone Gold ( bright golden colour with slightly zoned interior) and Golden ( golden orange colour with deep golden interior). Avalanche, a recent American Agricultural Society winner is pure white and Kestral is a dark red beet, ideal for baby beets with bright green semi-glossy leaves and wine- coloured stems. About 30 centimetres tall.
Beet varieties
I’ve been leafing through the Stokes Seed catalogue to see what is available locally. There are 16 different varieties listed, who knew something as humble as a beet was so diverse?
• Babybeat ( 40 days) — golf- ball sized at maturity, dark red, attractive green tops.
• Chioggia Guardsmark ( 60 days) — Italian heritage beet with light red roots, purple and white interiors, sweet flavour, flat globe shape. Good for salads.
• Touchstone Gold ( 55 days) — bright golden colour with slight interior zoning, retains colour and sweet flavour when cooked.
• Golden ( 65 days) — bright golden orange round, deep golden interior. Attractive light green leaves with yellow baby stems that turn green as they mature. Retains colour when cooked. Tops and beets are delicious, stems make a nice addition to salads. very sweet.
Table beets can come in multiple shapes. The most common is the globe shape, ( like AAS winner Ruby Queen) but they can also be cylindrical ( like Vulture), top- shaped, flattened or blocky. Beetroots store well, both in the ground and after harvest and every part of the plant is eaten making them a gardener and kitchen favourite. New hybrid varieties have mild flavour and higher sugar content attracting new fans every year. It is a perfect food for the health conscious as well as easy and fun to grow in the garden.
— Theresa Forte is a local garden writer, photographer and speaker. Reach her by calling 905- 351- 7540 or by email at theresa_ forte@sympatico.ca.