According to the weathermen, it’s going to take a cold turn here in the north (until last week, we’d had an unbroken string of 34 days with highs above 80 degrees.) So I decided to harvest one of the biggest of my beets. I also wanted to avoid it getting too large, after which there is a risk of becoming fibrous and less tasty. Before cooking it was a little sphere with a 2 inch diameter.
So I yanked the root from the ground, cut off the leaves, put a little bit of olive oil on it, and popped it into the oven (along with some frozen fish sticks.)
I washed the leaves and so I had a Beet green salad (consisting of the top of my single beet.)
The fish sticks were ready in 20 minutes, but I left the beet in for 35. The beet had gotten a little smaller, and while it was hot from the oven I pulled the skin off (this appears to be the recommended method for best taste and ease of removal.)
The beet had a jewel-red interior and was easily cut with a fork.
How did it taste? Delicious. The sweetness was definitely present (coming from the garden mere moments before, there was little risk that the stored sugar would have time to turn into starch) and the distinctive "cooked beet" smell was present, but subtle.
When I cook my next beet I'll try to take some pictures.
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