Mom Made Beet Pickles

I love going to my parents' house.  I still call it home.  We were "home" this weekend for Cornfest.  I am a former Cornfest Queen and because this was the 75th Cornfest, they had asked all former queens to ride in the parade.  So we loaded up the van on Friday and headed out to my hometown of Ortonville, MN.  The ride there was educational...we saw windmill blades being transported by train.

I got to spend time with my "Besties" from High School (Beth, me & Gayle).

AND I got to make beet pickles with my mom.  She has a great recipe for beet pickles and I wanted to give them a try.  I had bought beets at the Minneapolis Farmers' Market but felt a little intimidated by the process.  I'm a "hands-on" learner so I had mentioned to my mom that I'd like to SEE how they're made and then give it a try on my own.  We gathered supplies and her much used recipe card (Mom - even though you gave this recipe to me through email....could you write it in your handwrting?!) and we set to work.

My mom had already boiled the beets to soften them before we got there.  The beets need to be soft - a bit firmer than potatoes you are cooking for mashed potatoes.  They have to be completely cool before you pickle them, so she had boiled them the night before.  They have a huge garden so these are homegrown beets!

Next we made sure the jars, lids and rings were all clean.  First my mom washed them in soapy water and then we got them really hot on the stove top to sterilize them.

Then we peeled the beets.  The skin just fell off.  Sorry the picture is blurry.... my mom's hands were moving pretty fast preparing those beets!

Here is the beautiful bounty!

Next, we prepared the brine.  We doubled the recipe for the amount of beets we had so I put 4 cups of sugar in a large stock pot.

To that, I added 4 cups of CIDER vinegar

 and 4 cups of water.

In a piece of muslin, my mom sprinkled 2 Tablespoons of pickling spice, and then tied it closed tight with embroidery floss.

This little packet was then added to the sugar, vinegar and water mixture, along with 2 cinnamon sticks.

This mixture needs to boil until the sugar is dissolved so while it was on the stove top, my mom and I cut up the beets into perfect bite size pieces.  Again, I apologize for the blurry picture as my mom works her magic very quickly!

When the brine is ready (sugar is dissolved), it's ready to add to the cut up beets.  

My mom added the brine to the jars with a 1cup measuring cup (another blurry picture).

My job was to make sure the lips of the jars were clean and dry (I wiped them off with a clean cloth) and then I added the lids and the rings and put them in the canner.

We boiled them for about 10 minutes and then turned off the heat.  My mom took them out of the water bath and we listened for the tell-tale pop to let us know that they had sealed.  Out of the 10 jars we did, 9 of them sealed.  If any of yours don't seal, put them directly into the refrigerator and use right away.

My husband ate almost an entire jar of beet pickles this weekend.  He likes them just as pickles.  I like them as pickles but also thinly sliced on a spinach salad with blue cheese dressing and toasted walnuts.  Makes me hungry just thinking about it!  I think I'm ready now to do them on my own!

"How was the parade?" you ask.  Here is a view of my family from my spot on the Former Queen Float - my husband is in the yellow shirt; my middle son is in the red shirt; my daughter is in the blue shirt holding the sign "Hi Mom"; my niece is in the purple shirt holding the sign "Hi 1985 Queen"; my oldest son (partially hidden behind my niece) is wearing the blue shirt; my sister is behind my husband in the gray/white shirt; my mom is in the striped shirt next to my sister holding the camera; and my dad is in the yellow shirt behind the fence/pole.

I have the most amazing life and the most amazing family.  Love you all lots and lots!

 "My family comes first.  Maybe that's what makes me different from other guys."  -Bobby Darin