Beet This!

George and I spent the morning harvesting beets and raspberries from the garden.

I only harvested about half the beets.  There are still at least as many still growing.  The raspberries, sadly, were nearly too far gone.  They really should have been picked before we went camping, and then I forgot about them.  Nevertheless, I harvested enough last week for sorbet, and I picked all the shriveled ones off the plant so that it will, hopefully, keep producing for a little while longer.  It's a very prolific plant for its size.  Erik and Mae gave it to us several years ago, and we have really enjoyed it.  (Some of the best things in the garden were gifts from Erik and Mae.)

Also growing in the garden are the dahlias which are just now starting to bloom in profusion.

The yellow one was a gift from our neighbors.  The flowers are about eight inches in diameter.  The top one was a gift from Matthew, my younger son.  Also, the bluest of the blue hydrangeas has finally taken off,

and the butterfly bush is covered in blossoms.  I'm told these are considered noxious weeds, but I still love them.  (So do the bees.)

The mint is beginning to bloom.  The Kentucky Colonel mint blooms white,

while the Spearmint blooms purple.  The bees love both of them.

As I write this post, I'm getting ready to pickle and can the beets.  My recipe calls for 7 pounds of beets with two inches of greens and their rootlets attached.

After giving them a cursory rinse and trimming them, I have 5 pounds.  I still think that's plenty, although I may not get the eight jars the recipe promises.  (On the other hand, I sometimes get more than I'm expecting.)  So now I'm off to skin them.  I'll show you what goes into pickled beets in my next post.