PETER SEABROOK
Why the versatile beetroot is a must to grow
BEETROOT has suddenly re-climbed the popularity charts and is now seen as one of our major health foods. It always tops the list of vegetable seed sales, presumably because the seeds are so large most gardeners buy more than one packet to sow an allotment length row. This is not really necessary as traditional beetroot seeds are in fact clusters of several seeds and can be sown individually, two or three inches, apart if grown for full size roots. Today, of course, seedling thinning’s are eaten as salad leaves, so thicker seedling emergence is quite acceptable.
Beetroot is one of the easiest root vegetables to grow and suffers from few pest and disease attacks, save perhaps leaf miner, which can usually be controlled by pinching the larvae as it eats between the outer layers of a leaf. You will also see the same symptoms on Swiss chard.
There are several different root coloured beet including golden Beetroot ‘Boldor’, white Beetroot ‘Albina Vereduna’ and B. ‘Chioggia’ with pink and white circles when the root is cut into slices. The foliage on all of them can be used in salads and steamed, as you would spinach, for a hot leaf vegetable in its’ own right. There are not many vegetables where you can eat the seedling thinning’s, have the leaves as salad or cook and store the roots for pretty well year round use.
At this time of year the roots should
“Today, seedling thinnings are eaten as salad leaves”
have reached a good size and can be lifted, the foliage screwed off just above the roots and stored somewhere cool and damp.
If they are not too large, leave them in the ground and pull as required through the winter. The roots are pretty hardy and will withstand quite low temperatures.