My dad grew some beets in his garden this year. When I was at his house Monday he dug them up so I could can them. He loves pickled beets and wanted me to can them. The picture above is the finished product, but below I am going to walk you step by step on how I canned the pickled beets. Do you see how beautiful the jar lid is on the one in the front? A lady I met who is also a breast cancer survivor of over 25 years asked me if I wanted her canning jars because she wasn't going to can anymore. If you like canning then you are going to say YES!!! I met her in town and I couldn't believe how many jars she gave me. She gave me 3 boxes full of pint and jelly jars. She also gave me some unused lids and rings that have beautiful patterns on them. That was such a blessing and I actually needed them to can these beets!
The first thing to do is put them in your sink. I pulled my trash can over so I could put the tops in the trash as I cut the tops off with scissors. You will want to leave around 2 inches of the tops still attached so they won't bleed out.
Try to make sure to get all of the dirt that is in your sink out before you start washing them. You don't want to clog up your sink!
The first time I washed the beets I used a vegetable brush on them to try to get as much of the dirt off them as I could. As I scrubbed each one I would put them in a pan to wait for the next part of the process of how I got them ready to can.
I cleaned the sink again and this time I put all of the beets in the sink and filled it with enough water to cover them. I moved them around trying to shake off any loose dirt. I did this process 3 times.
I filled my water bath canner with water and put it on the stove where I turned on the stove to medium heat.
In another large put I put the beets in with enough water to try to cover them. You will want to cook them for about a half hour to 45 minutes until they are tender with a fork. This is what they looked like after they were cooked. I didn't get a picture of the next process as I was wearing gloves to keep from turning my hands red. Once the beets are cooked I put them in the sink to drain. I ran cold water over them as I cut the tops and bottom off so I could peel the skin off of them. Once I had them peeled I put them in a bowl where I cut them into bite sized pieces.
When you can you will discover that you need a lot of large pots! In another large pot you will want to add the ingredients that you will fill your jars with. Cook them for around 5 minutes to let the sugar dissolve. The recipe will be at the bottom.
Here is a picture of my water bath canner ready for me to put the filled jars of beets in it.
In another large pot I filled it half way with water and put 3 pint size canning jars in to get them hot so I could fill them with the cooked beets.
I added my cooked beets to my liquid. I used a canning funnel to ladle the beets with the liquid into my hot jars. In a small pan I heated some water with the lids in it. I wiped the jar tops off with a wet dish cloth because if there is anything on the rim of the jars the lid won't stick to the jar. I put on the ring. I then lifted the jar over to the water bath canner and placed it in the canner until I had all of my jars filled.
This was my first time canning pickled beets. I grew up eating them from where my mom would can them so I know I will like them. Unfortunately, she didn't write down her recipe so I had to find one as close to it as I could. This is the recipe that I used:
2 cups of water
2 cups of apple cider vinegar
2 cups of sugar
2 tablespoons pickling spice
I had to do this process twice because I didn't have a pot big enough to cook all of the beets at once. With the first batch I didn't have enough beets to fill a jar so I did what other canners do and added some onion to it. Hopefully it will be good! I canned 11 pint sized jars in all.
Note to self: Next time be sure to take some Advil BEFORE you start canning because it does make your hips and back hurt!
Angela
