I heart beet

From the garden

Annie Reeve, Woodend Permaculture Garden

Beetroot is such a fabulous vegetable; seriously easy to grow, versatile and tasty. Beetroot is the storage organ of a biennial plant, as such it is sown in Spring and Summer for quick (90day) harvest of young roots and long over Winter harvest of large mature roots. Very soon now the over Wintered roots will start to present elongated stems and flowers. Beetroot are wind pollinated and it is quite easy to save your own seed, the seed is actually a small dryish fruit that contains many seeds which is why you will usually have to thin your beetroot - some commercial seed house mechanically thin the seed to avoid you to having to do this. If you let 2 beetroot grow together they will generally stay smaller for longer, but nicer shaped roots and more even growing tend to come from thinning to one plant, spaced every 30cm for Winter roots and every 15cm for Summer eating. The time to start sowing, especially for Summer roots is NOW.

I cannot think of a herb or spice that does not go beautifully with beetroot in everything from raw or steamed salads, roasts, soups, pickles to cakes.

To the table

Lucy Campbell, Veg Action

River Cottage creator Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has a couple of beetroot recipes I always turn to: his beetroot and walnut hummus, as well as a chocolate beetroot icecream. The hummus is, as all hummus’ are, dead easy.  You just puree toasted walnuts, toasted cumin seeds, a piece of stale bread and some cooked beetroot with tahini, garlic, lemon and olive oil. He also suggests just slicing fresh beetroot very finely and tossing with quality oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

At the 1 Million Women online cook-a-long that was held as part of Food Waste Free October, Anthea Cheng of Rainbow Nourishments blog fame did an amazing beetroot brownie https://www.rainbownourishments.com/beetroot-brownies/.  While you’re at Anthea’s blog, checkout all the ways she makes ‘rainbow’ food by adding beetroot.

And beetroot is part of the spinach family, so don’t forget you can eat the leaves. The stalks can be pan fried with garlic for about 10 minutes, then add the shredded leaves and wilt down for 5 minutes as your side of greens.

 Along with being packed full of nutrients like folate, potassium, iron and vitamin C, a study done in 2015 of 68 people found that a daily glass of beetroot juice over 4 weeks significantly lowered their blood pressure!  It’s believed the nitrates in this magenta bulbous beauty are responsible for the impressive result.

Other plants to harvest in October

Overwintered crops include: carrot, parsnip, beetroot, root parsley, broccoli, kale, Leeks, chard,  lettuce, spinach, mache, escarole, endive or chicory. (Perennial crops) asparagus, lemons and other citrus, mint, lovage, salad burnet and parsley.