Homegrown Quick Pickled Beets
Beets on Deviled Eggs
2lbs beets, greens removed
1 Cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 Cup Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon pepper corns
1/2 Teaspoon salt
5 Whole cloves
1/2 Teaspoon red pepper flakes
Boil or roast the beets until they can be pierced with a fork. Peel beets. Slice thinly or dice into medium sized pieces.
Bring the rest of the ingredients to a boil. Gently simmer until sugar is dissolved. Turn off heat, cover and let sit for at least 5 minutes. Strain, then add the liquid to the beets, let sit for at least a 1/2 hour before enjoying.
It’s almost dinner time. I sit in the kitchen on a fold out step ladder that looks like it has been in my family for generations, although in reality it’s probably only as old as me. My Grandmother uses it to reach for things stuck way up high in her pantry. One of my hands cupping my six year old face, elbow on my knee, while the other is scratching dried bits of seven minute frosting off the step that I sit on.
I watch my Grandmother, her back to me, apron stings tied around her plump waist and forming a messy bow in the back. Her short blond hair is rolled up tight in rollers except for the delicate pieces on either side of her face, they are looped then fastened with a bobby pin. She has a small roast in the oven and the creamed corn that we froze last summer is thawing out on the counter in a Zip Lock bag.
Grandma is at the old farmhouse sink peeling potatoes, always mashed up russet potatoes with a roast, and next to the roast in a small tin, I spy pickled beets. I don’t remember my Grandmother ever pickling her own beets, although we put up almost everything from the garden, green beans, corn, raspberries. We always butchered our own animals, beef and pork, never chicken though (Grandma was always partial to her fowl, even going as far as to taxidermy a few of her favorite roosters and place them on the stairs as decoration). I wonder why we never pickled beets?
I never liked those pickled beets, in fact, I never really liked beets at all until I started growing them in my own garden. That’s when I fell in love with the intensely earthy and sweet taste. There is something about roasting, then peeling homegrown beets. Your fingers get stained red, but it’s OK – job well done.
I now enjoy beets most any way, but I really love homegrown quick pickled beets, so much nicer than the tinned beets found often on my grandmother’s dinner table.