Will they just get woody if left in the ground now?
they won't stand for much longer in the ground from now on without something going wrong with them but I guess it depends on whether the weather goes wet/warm or cold/wet or stays dry - they can be pulled and stored in boxes of sand when it does start to turn nasty
Ah well, more pickling!
Don't have much success with storing.
One thing you can try:
1. Store beetroot in sand or even soil in a cool place (e.g allotment shed).
2. Keep the biggest beetroot for next year and plant out again once the frosts have finished.
3. Eat the smaller roots as required.
4. Saved beetroot will produce masses od seeds so that you won't need to buy any again.
Mine were fine last year, we ate the last ones in February this year... The tops die off but the bottoms were fine. We're warmer than you, but that should keep enemies away shouldn't it?! I have 2 rows that I intend to leave well into winter.
we had ours in a basket of potting compost, lasted 'til spring, we were eating the beetroot all winter and the new growth as salad leaves as it grew through ;D
I have left them in ground ( I live in the Midlands). The weather didn't affect them tooo much but they got eaten a bit by badgers/deer/mice/rats that we have on the plot.
I brought the last of mine in today
A neighbour of mine stores roots in buckets of sand. He showed me some beetroot last spring, and they looked fine.
I should have waited!!
Quote from: tim on October 11, 2008, 10:06:18
Will they just get woody if left in the ground now?
Isn't it when they start going to seed that they get woody? Don't grow beetroot every year, but we seem to have a good crop this year.
OH pulled some on Friday, and I boiled them, and they seem fine. I've put them in a vinegar mix from an Aussie Women's Weekly cookbook of:-
2 cups sugar
4 cups white vinegar (1 litre)
1 cup water
3small dried red chillies
1 star anise
6 black peppercorns
Combine the above ingredients in a saucepan, stir over heat, without boiling, until sugar is dissolved: cool.
To pickle them you cut up the cooked beetroot, pack them in jars, and cover with the vinegar mix.
At the moment I've got mine in a bowl, with a view to having a cheese and beetroot bap.
The only trouble I have with this recipe is that it doesn't tell you how long it will keep, and the addition of water to the vinegar mix is worrying.
valmarg