PICKLED BEETS...

Lacto-Fermented Beets

Two weeks ago, at our last (sob) CSA pick-up I was fortunate enough to take home a bag of organic beets.
Now beets on their own are just OK.
But pickled beets are a horse of a different color!
I usually only buy them around the holidays as they are fairly pricey at the grocers,
but this year (my fermentation year!) I wanted to try my hand at making my own.

So...I scrubbed off my beets and roasted them in a low oven (around 300F) for 3 hours.
I then let them cool enough to peel them.
They were way too difficult to peel like this, but I did what I could.
I then went out to what remains of the garden and dug up another batch of beets.
This time I scrubbed them, then boiled them for about 1 hour (low boil) till tender.
MUCH easier to peel!
The peels just slide right off....
Following the recipe in Nourishing Traditions, I washed 8 wide mouth pint jars and put the seeds from a cardamom pod in each one.
I cut the beets into thick julienned slices and put them in the jar, pressing down firmly.
I then mixed 1 cup of water, 1 TBL sea salt, and 4 TBL of raw whey and covered the beets.
Each pint needed approximately the full 1 cup of water/salt/whey mixture.
Now they will set on the counter for 3 days then go into the already too full basement fridge to slow down the fermentation process.
By Thanksgiving they should be nice and pickled!
YIKES!
Thanksgiving is just 2 weeks from today!
How the heck did THAT happen?
And could somebody please tell me where September and October took off to this year?
Cause I don't much remember them....

xoxo,
Cindy

This entry is a part of Simple Lives Thursday