beets beets beets!
You had to know me at highchair age to know why the headline is funny. Fortunately I grew up to l-o-v-e love fresh beets, roasted beets, and beet greens. Thanks to Diana for putting that fateful golden beet into a salad and welcoming me to beet heaven. Here’s what I pulled out of the veg patch last night. This is the second harvest, and there are about 5 plants left.
did I wait a touch too long to harvest?
They are from seed: Botanical Interests “Gourmet Blend,” planted earlyish April. My only wish is for more golden beets.
washed in the overnight rain
I’m planning to sow “Dutch Baby Ball” from Renee’s Seeds this weekend. Says only 55 days to harvest, a lucky thing since I’m aghast to just discover that Ithaca’s avg first fall date is Sept 15 Sept 30-Oct 10! Meaning I might be going on too late to plant some fall crops. But we do have leeks that will overwinter. Looking forward to chipping them out of the ice come February. Now THAT will be a harvest!
the veg patch, right before the rain, 29 July 2009
Feeling pretty happy about the garden this year. Even if we lose the tomatoes to blight, we’ll have had sweet peas (cause they’re pretty), sugar snap peas (planting a ton of this next year), lettuce, arugula, spinach, kale, swiss chard, 3 kinds of beans, cilantro, basil, oregano, dill, nasturtiums, 2 kinds of leeks, collard greens, red cabbage, broccoli, zucchini, cucumber, 6 different pepper varieties, tomatillos, garlic scapes, garlic bulbs, lots of weeds, compliments from the neighbors, and full bellies. The rabbits and deer leave us alone. If only the birds would leave us a few strawberries…
Sin City to Slaterville 
hey with the cool wet spring (and most of July), I am expecting summer to go late. good luck with the beets. your photos are beautiful.
Let’s hope so, Wayne! Thanks for the nice comment :)
Oooh…beets. Nothing more beautiful than the freshly pulled roots with the soil still clinging to them. Last week I just pulled the last stragglers from the winter crop and am looking forward to getting some in the ground for fall. I hope you get a nice crop before the season turns! (Fall on September 15? That’s just not fair.)
Thank you! They are delicious. That avg first fall frost looked fishy to me, so I double checked the Cornell Hort site (where I should have gone first), and it’s Sept 30 – Oct 10, which sounds like last year. Frost on Sept 15 is just wrong.