the thing i love most about garden beets is you can eat the tops and the bottoms. both are equally delicious and nutritious, and beets are very easy to grow.
i pickled four detriot red beets in one cup of rice vinegar with a pinch of salt, a squirt of agave and a bay leaf. my beets and carrots were planted about 2-3 weeks apart to separate the harvests. four beets and about 16 carrots were planted per square foot.
though we added a 6'x6' and another 4'x4'/2'x2 box, i still felt limited on planting space. the universe heard my wishes and gave us some more soil... at a community garden that just started 3 blocks from our home!
tomorrow we're planting lots of goodies, including watermelon and butternut squash! i'm so excited to share and connect with other gardeners in the neighborhood. we've met the woman in charge, mickey, and a young boy helping with the wood chips - both were super sweet and friendly. yay!=) expect lots more on the community garden!
there's our two rows, measuring 3'x18'. plants were donated to the garden and we scooped up four 'mortgage lifter' tomatoes (ha!) and eight sweetie cherry tomatoes.
so we'll be planting this memorial day weekend and tending to our garden babies =). we'll also meet my sister's new baby puggle, and hopefully get a chance to chit chat with christina pirello, the chef who kick-started my passion for animal-friendly food. she'll be speaking at the american vegan society's 50th anniversary garden party on sunday.
(christina pirello is a local chef (from philadelphia) who hosts an amazing whole foods/plant-based cooking show called Christina Cooks. have you seen it? her show is one of the few i miss since we broke our tv. i told john i think i may feel a little star-struck meeting her in person - we love her!=)
what have you got planned for this weekend? whatever you do, have fun and be safe!
xoxo
A year ago today, I was pulling the first of my beets. This year, I had my very first ever beet failure. So much for planting by the moon phases ;-)
ReplyDeleteWhew! Love love love your garden girlie! Can you come over and help me with mine? :) XO
ReplyDeleteI love community gardens. I used to have one before my back situation. So much fun.
ReplyDeleteBeets are not my thing lately since they started to hurt my throat when I juiced them. Ouch.
Happy gardening!
sorry granny!=( last year i had only ONE beet make it. i was envying you and all your pickling!=)
ReplyDeleteI love beets and what beautiful photo's..thanks for sharing and have a wonderful weekend!
ReplyDeleteLooks like your gardening is going great this year! Love seeing the progress and harvest. There's nothing like fresh from the garden veggies. Beets have been an acquired taste for me. I've managed to go from "yuck" to "ok in juice" to "ok fermented or in small portions" to "ok, yum". And they're so darn pretty. The girly-girl in me loves putting them in my dishes because they add such a nice, rich color. I swear I learned to like their taste because I'm so visual and loved the way they look :). Have fun planting away in your community garden space.
ReplyDeleteYour home grown beets look amazing and bright. So jealous you can grow things where you are! We just have sand here :( Enjoy for me!
ReplyDeleteChristina Pirello kick started my vegan life too! :) I started watching her show when I was babysitting about 5 years ago and I was hooked! She is awesome! ENJOY! Take pics!
ReplyDeletemy comments keep getting munched so i will just say have a great weekend, beets and mandolin, a match made in heaven :)
ReplyDeletexo
i love your garden...
ReplyDeletethose beets are beautiful...and i absolutely adore pickled beets...
we've decided to hold off on our garden. we want to move into our new place first!
=)
miss you.
Never heard of Christina before. Thanks for the linkage! I'm always excited to hear about and support the Philly foodies! :)
ReplyDeleteHa ha. That's such as great title. I eat both the beet tops and bottoms, too :-)
ReplyDeleteI love this garden post! I love beets in all its many forms..tops, bottoms, sliced, grated, pickled...lol! Yum! That's awesome that you got more garden space. That community garden looks fabulous. Can't wait to see more! I heard from Christina somewhere before so thanks for the reminder. Hope you had a blast at the garden party!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful beets, especially your first salad pic:) What a great idea to use the tops as a green in salad!
ReplyDeleteThe community garden sounds like so much fun. Hope you had a great weekend!
Awesome! Your beet salad looks so pretty! And I love juicing beet greens (and beets) - haven't made them into a salad yet. We've had trouble growing those because of slugs. :( But we try every year! Others grow them and give some to us and some are like us where it doesn't seem to work out. Oh well. Try try again. Congrats on the space at the community garden! It's so much fun and you learn so much too.
ReplyDeletebeautiful! love the combo of red onion + beets..
ReplyDelete