Beets, Beautiful Beets

Here are the gorgeous beets we harvested from the garden this week. All winter long we've picked the tops as salad greens. Now the tops are too tough and bitter, so we dug up the roots and let the chickens and goats gobble up the green tops we trimmed off. Mother told me to wash and cook the beets, then peel them. That is much easier than the other way around~the peel just slips off in one piece after they are cooked. They are delicious eaten hot, mashed up with a bit of butter and salt and freshly ground pepper. But we also love them pickled with apple cider vinegar, served cold from the fridge (sometimes eaten straight from the jar while standing over the sink!)