Baby Beets

Here they are baby beets....really really baby...just a few weeks old. They look so good. Though I have to admit at this point in the year, I have eaten alot of beets, it is the greens I am after. If I could eat these greens right off the tray I would...except for the fact that eating my fill would probably decimate the entire first planting of beets. That would be bad!

These babies are destined for the fields. They will be planted in clusters of 3-6 (that is the number of seedlings in each cell of the seed flat) about 6" apart in two rows about 24" apart per bed. They will grow to golf ball size and then we will harvest, wash and send them out to the hungry masses.

Of course most people focus on the beets, but the greens are really amazing. They are far more tender than spinach, especially when harvested young. There is a generation of folks who remember going to the market to buy beet greens, they could care less about the root. But these days most customers ask if we can take the tops off...after we offer a few simple ideas of what they could do with the greens...sauteed w/garlic and olive oil, steamed w/ splash of vinegar...many try them, but we often bring plenty back for the chickens, or pigs, or us!