roasted balsamic beetroot . the power of thought . archives
Growing beetroot, Roasting beetroot. A little writing from ten years ago. Lots of gorgeous pictures! Choosing your future choices.
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Got those beets sown yet?
Americans say beets, New Zealanders and Australians say beetroot. What are they called in your country?
How to grow Beets (beetroot)
• Sow seeds 1/4 inch down, directly into a deeply dug, well composted patch in your garden. Lines are optional. Sow every two weeks for a continuous supply.
• As seedlings grow, thin the plants. Harvest the thinnings for your daily salad (baby leaves and baby roots), this is to thin the patch of beets out.
• Continue thinning (and eating) until plants are 4 inches (10 cm) apart.
• Leave remaining plants to grow to maturity.
Beetroot (the root) contains about 44 to 58 calories per 100 grams , with 8 to 10 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, and small amounts of protein and fat. (Low calerie + low fat + high fibre). Beetroot provides a good amount of folate, potassium, manganese, iron, and vitamin C.
Beetroot leaves are also nutritious, offering vitamins A, B6, C, and K, along with iron and magnesium.
Beetroot is a winner in my pursuit of the colourful diet.
Some of our dear readers here are at the stage of throwing in the seed. But some of you can harvest, or buy at the market, mature beetroot. I hope you all find something useful here.
Roasted Beetroot with Balsamic and Feta.
A bunch of mature beet roots
A handful of pine nuts
Fresh or dried dill
Feta balsamic vinegar
Lemon zest ( optional).
Wash all the beetroot, trim off the greens. (Save the best of the greens for the salad). Toss the whole beets in olive oil and a sprinkle with salt. Cover the roasting dish in tin foil. Pile the beetroot onto the tinfoil and close the tinfoil to make a bag. Roast for about an hour, or until a skewer slips in easily.
When they’re tender, pull them out of the oven and let them cool a bit. Put on rubber gloves (this works best when the beet root is hot) and rub off the skins. The skins will slip off easily.
Chop the peeled beets into even-sized cubes. About an inch square is good. Let them cool.
In a hot dry cast iron pan toss the pine nuts until roasted. Take out to cool.
In the same pan heat a little olive oil. Toss in the beetroot, a tablespoon of dried dill, pepper and salt and cook for about 5 - 10 minutes, until hot and seared. Toss a few times. Once reheated- add about two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. Watch the vinegar bubble up and cook off slightly. Toss, turn or stir the beets to distribute the vinegar. When the vinegar is almost cooked off (this will happen quickly) take off the heat and scrape into bowl.
Arrange the glossy beets in the bowl with a little more chopped fresh dill and a sprinkle of lemon zest. Top with crumbled feta. And pine nuts. Serve warm.
I am leaving the stats up to you - this is more of a method than a recipe.
This is my go to recipe for beetroot. My daughter adds a little hot spiral pasta to her roasted beetroot and feta.
Garlic is popping up. Can you guess why there is a rake over this space? Yup. KitKat likes garlic too! Cats and vege gardens - sigh.
From The Archives of The Kitchens Garden blog.
This 👇🏼 was written in 20I5. One of my most important lessons from farming is to gather your data and make good well informed decisions. Watch first. You are a powerful person. Whether you think you are or not is irrelevant- you are. Your decisions, no matter how small, have lasting repercussions.
Let’s go back to 2015.
The Power, Your Power.
I am often amazed by the power of a small word or gesture. The tiniest pat and smallest gentle directional correction can literally make a world of difference to a persons future. An animals future. A gardens future. The future of our relationships. A small word as you open the door, a smile as you close it. We are powerful. All of us. We must be careful with that power. Gentle with it.
It is the same with animals. When working with animals we train ourselves to watch for the smallest sounds and movements. Leaning on the gate just watching is one of our most powerful choices as farmers. As humans we have tremendous power with our animals - we need to use it well. With empathy. We must be very careful with our decisions. Lady Astor (the milk cow) is paused up on the concrete pad by the barn for a week or so. She is not pleased with my decision but ground is so wet and poggy, she just gets her udder so muddy, and she hates the hose. And I cannot milk a dirty udder. This small change has resulted in way less milk than I would normally get on a diet of fresh pasture. I expected that.
Presently I am watching Poppy to make sure she is on course for a healthy delivery. The piglet creep area is all ready with a warm light and deep straw. She has a big farrowing space in the barn with guard rails so she cannot crush piglets against a wall by mistake. My choices are very considered, each of these changes to the space, honed by the (anxious) experience of crate free deliveries, one overlooked change could result in a dead piglet, my preparations are very high value for her now.
I mentioned to the lady at the little feed store I frequent that I had had trouble with AI (Artificial Insemination) with Poppy being so expensive and yesterday a local farmer called and said she had a lovely young prize winning Hereford Boar for sale, she had heard that I might be interested in buying one. He is 5 months old with Good Hips! (Apparently this is a thing). We have space for him in the other barn across the way so I am thinking seriously about taking him. The price is right. Just a small comment to one person and we may have saved ourselves a lot of money and gained more control over the breeding. Herefords are lovely gentle pigs on a small farm.
They already sell really well.
The turkeys are entering that messy toddler stage. Still very sweet and slow growing. They are dear wee things. I am changing nothing in their enclosure - they are doing very well. The choice not to change makes impact too.
The sunflowers are growing at an extraordinary rate. They are already taller than me and beginning to form flowers. The sweetcorn that is planted in rows behind it is doing very well in some areas though knocked badly by the excess standing water in other areas but are already tasseling. I am pretty excited about these crops. Most of this is feed for the animals. I am very grateful that these rows are draining well. Some farmers have had their crops underwater for weeks around here… it is a disaster. And still raining. The other day the creek water was just below the bridge – perilously high.
The tank chicken tractor has been moved back into the garden so a group of chickens can start their garden housekeeping. This is an excellent way of improving the fertility of a resting section of garden. The space I choose to give to the chickens this year is next years kitchen garden in the rotation. The enclosure with its chooks is left on a piece of ground for a few weeks and they clear it and fertilise it wonderfully before being moved to another section.
Right – out to work for me! It has been raining again so coats and gumboots rule. The peachicks will be delivered to their new home today. Jake is coming with me as navigator. At least with the chicks I do not have to hitch up the trailer to my imaginary truck, because I don’t have a truck of my own - yet - the peachicks will be travelling in a cardboard box in the back of the cooking oil car!
Life was running a mile a minute when I wrote this but still I believed the most important move of the day was leaning on the gate watching. (or here in the city gazing out the window into the garden - thinking). That way I make informed choices. Not reactive moves or thoughtless announcements; careless decisions can be problematic both on the farm and in life itself.
I believe spontaneity and luck are subconsciously informed by past study and thought. Think about that for a minute. You are informing future decisions right now. Your choices now: shape the future.
Thinking about stuff then researching others opinions and searching for the facts within a persons opinion is not a waste of time.
Take care and talk soon.
Celi
The Canterville Ghost. The complete short story.
Below are all the narrations so far. ⬇️ Available for all my subscribers.
Tomorrow I will begin to read (by popular request) The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
In case you missed it:
First - coming from northern European roots - of course I love beetroot - do not think i have used pine nuts but that sounds delicious :) ! And if I was able to garden at the moment I would learn extra from your practicality! I am the one who plants in straight rows! And . . .oh . . . I DO remember the farmy at that stage > lovely to look at the photos and recall . . . smiling . . .
I’ve planted my first beets! Have no idea if they’ll grow, but thought I’d give it a try.
Here’s hoping 🤞🏽