Beets

Yesterday we (meaning Hubby) pulled up the last of the beets and we (both of us) canned them.  The hardest part of it was finding some empty jars, rings, and lids.

We did two jars of small whole beets and two jars of sliced beets for a total of four quarts. One jar each were regular and the other jar each were pickled. I'm not sure about the pickling recipe I used. It seems a bit sweet to me, which is an unusual thing for me to say. But I suppose we can drain and make a new pickling sauce when we open the jars.  

When I found the canning jars I also found many jars of the last things we canned, some hot pepper jelly and our olives. I think we are going to have to throw those out because they were canned in 2009, the year before we left California! The National Center For Home Foods Preservation says properly canned foods should retain optimum eating quality for at least one year. I'm not so sure about four years...

My kids aren't beet fans but Hubby and I are, so I don't think we need to worry about these being in storage for too long!