Beetroot: Harvesting, Freezing, Preserving & Co.

What happens after the beetroot harvest? With these tips you can store and successfully preserve your beetroot.

Who isn't happy when they can harvest vegetables, salad or fruit in their own garden? Maybe this year you have a very special root vegetable in your garden for the first time, for example the beetroot, which is also spelled beetroot or beetroot. Below are tips on when to harvest beetroot and how to go about harvesting. We also present the diverse processing options.

If you are still considering whether beetroot should be in your garden, then our explanations on the Cultivation of beetroot. Have courage: the cultivation of beetroot requires little care and is also suitable for newcomers to the vegetable garden and raised beds.

Harvest beetroot correctly: timing and procedure

It takes three to four months from sowing the beetroot seeds to harvesting. Beets are, just like carrots or radish, edible at almost any growth stage, regardless of the usual harvest time.

Since the beetroot can be sown outdoors from the first frost-free days in late March and April, the beets can also be harvested from the end of July. A fully ripe tuber can grow more than the size of a tennis ball. If you want particularly tender and aromatic beetroot vegetables, you can pull the so-called “baby beets” out of the ground four weeks earlier.

Beetroot harvest time

Beetroot can be sown from April to the end of June. The harvest of the mature tubers is then postponed accordingly to late summer or autumn. So when can you harvest beetroot? If you want to store tubers for the winter, they should be sown in June so that you can harvest them in October. The tuber keeps best in the bed. It can stay there longer than the three to four month ripening period. Basically, the beetroot can stay in the ground down to a temperature of -3°C. However, one should keep in mind that the tuber accumulates more water and loses its aroma with increasing age and size.

tip: The tuber often protrudes a little out of the ground. So you can decide whether you want to harvest the respective fruit size. If this is not clearly visible, you can carefully lift a plant out of the ground to test it and then decide whether you want to continue harvesting. Due to the digestibility of the beetroot in every stage of growth, this procedure is easily possible and no vegetables are wasted.

If you want to let the beetroot ripen, you should pay attention to when the leaves start to turn yellow: From now on you can harvest. In summary, one can say that the beetroot harvest time extends from summer until well into late autumn.

Tip: If you also want to multiply beetroot and harvest seeds for this purpose, you can use a trick: Old varieties in particular can flower and form seeds in the first year of cultivation if they are sown very early (March - April). became. Other varieties have to be sheltered for a year in order to flower.

Harvesting beets: procedure

It is important to lift the root bulb out of the ground without injuring it. To do this, you carefully use a digging fork to loosen the soil around the beets and then pull them out. The early evening is the ideal time of day for this. To avoid bleeding, the stems should be twisted off and not cut off. If you leave about 3 cm of the stalk on the beet, it can be stored better. For storage, the soil must not be washed off, but only tapped lightly with the hand.

Harvest beetroot leaves

Can you eat beetroot leaves? You may have asked yourself this question during the harvest. The answer is yes: you can eat not only the tubers, but also the young beetroot leaves. These contain many times more vital substances than the tubers. They are at their most tender at a size of 10 to 12 cm. Of course, not all leaves can be cut off, otherwise the tuber will not be able to continue growing. The heart leaves and some others should remain on the plant. The leaves can be like spinach or chard process.

Store beets: in the basement, in a pile or in the fridge

If you do not want to process them further or otherwise preserve them, you can store beetroot. The easiest way to store beetroot is in the fridge. Wrap the tubers in a damp cloth and keep them in the vegetable compartment for a few weeks.

Instead, you can fill a wooden box lined with plastic foil with about 10 cm of moist sand. Then comes a layer of undamaged beetroots. But they shouldn't touch each other. Then another layer of sand. If the box is high enough, you can also store several layers of beetroot in it. The box is best stored in a dark, cool cellar with high humidity.

Another possibility is a “rent” in the garden. To do this, the beets are placed in a sand-filled box, similar to storage in a cellar, which is then placed in a suitable hole in the ground in the garden. The walls of the box should be protected from rodents by fine-meshed wire. Before the "treasure chest" is covered with earth, a thick layer of straw should be laid on top to protect against the cold. If the weather is frost-free, the windrow should be opened and ventilated occasionally.

Preserving beetroot: prepare it ready to eat

Who doesn't like to use supplies from their own garden outside of the harvest season? The juicy and aromatic root vegetable beetroot is particularly suitable for preserving. But caution is advised: the betanin contained in the beetroot tubers is very colour-intensive. In principle, you should not wear your best clothes during further processing, but you should wear household gloves. With lighter ones Beetroot Varieties you don't have to be so careful.

Pickle or boil down beetroot

To pickle beets, they should first be washed carefully. The tuber is placed in a pot and filled with enough water to completely cover it. Now bring the water to a boil and cook for about 30 to 40 minutes. Then take the tuber out of the pot and peel it off under running water or quench it briefly, let it cool down and then peel it off.

The beet can now be inserted in its entirety or cut into slices or strips. To do this, the prepared parts are layered in a glass with other ingredients, such as onions or ginger, and any hot vinegar decoction is poured over them. The jar should be sealed immediately. The beets can be stored in a cool place for several months.

If you want to preserve beetroot, proceed as with pickling. However, the sealed jars are boiled down in the preserving pot at 100 °C for about 30 minutes. If beetroot is preserved in this way, it will keep longer than the preserved vegetables.

Freeze beets

Can you freeze beetroot? Yes: Just like pickling or preserving, the beetroot is carefully cleaned and covered with cold water. The water is brought to the boil and the tuber is cooked for 30 to 40 minutes, depending on its size. Then she is taken out, quenched and peeled. When it is completely cold, it is cut into strips, cubes or slices or filled into bags or cans as a whole and frozen. This way the vegetables can be kept for a long time. Depending on your needs, you can then process it further at a later point in time.

Use fresh beets

Beets can be used in a variety of ways in the kitchen. The juicy, aromatic root vegetables can be steamed, fried or made into a soup. You can also conjure up fries or crunchy chips from it. Even raw beetroot is gaining popularity as a salad.

Beetroot recipe ideas

There are numerous recipes for beetroot, the uses are extremely versatile. Below we would like to share a few ideas with you.

Beetroot Juice

Beetroot juice mixed with apples, carrots and lemon is a very refreshing and healthy treat. If you own a juicer, try this special drink and make your own beetroot juice.

Beetroot Soup

Apples, carrots and ginger are also very harmonious partners in a beetroot soup. You can refine the cooked and pureed ingredients with broth, cream and cream cheese.

Beetroot chips

Here the raw beetroot is washed, peeled and then cut into thin slices or planed. The slices are placed on a baking sheet, drizzled with oil and sprinkled with salt. At 160 °C, it takes a good half hour before the chips are ready to be enjoyed.

Beetroot salad

Whether grated raw (peel first) or boiled and chopped, with the right dressing every beetroot becomes a delicious salad. Apple pieces and walnuts and a nice balsamic vinegar dressing are particularly tasty.

Beetroot fries

Just like with classic potato fries, the peeled tuber is cut into chips-like sticks and prepared in hot frying oil. Then season with salt and pepper.

Beetroot carpaccio

Cook the beets in hot water for about 40 minutes. Then rinse and peel the beetroot. Slice into thin slices and serve, for example, with lamb's lettuce, pears and a light dressing.

Beetroot can be grown well in intercropping with garlic, savory, dill and lettuce. If you would like to learn more about good planting partners in the bed, you will find our special article on mixed culture many good arguments for a colorful mixed vegetable patch.