Too Young To Be Grumpy

This is the first time I've experienced the summer glut (although I always seem to experience a summer gut).

We've now got a whole load of beetroot outside ready to some in, as well as 4 broccoli flowers that will make around 8 meals. Our runner beans are beginning to make enough for a few meals and we've got over 30 chillis on our chilli plant.

So, last night I harvested a few of our beetroot. I wasn't sure really what to expect, but it turned out ok.

First I needed to steralise a jar, so I got an ex-Branston Pickle jar and washed it out thoroughly in warm soapy water and bunged it in the oven set to 120^oC for 5 minutes. In the meantime I went out and I picked some big looking beetroot:



Then I took them in, chopped off the stalks and the roots (leaving a small amount so they don't bleed out) and gave them a wipe.



I then wrapped them in foil and baked them in the oven at 190^oC for 3 hours. Yes, 3 hours. My cooking timer only does 99 minutes, so I had to do 90 minutes, and restart it when it beeped!



When they came out, and had cooled down a little, the skin was easy to pull off. So that's what I did:



When they were all red and naked, I chopped them up and put them into the jar I'd steralised. Some I sliced and others I diced. It gave me very pink fingertips!



I then poured in some Sarson's pickling vinegar (don't sniff this as it'll blow your head off!) and made sure the jar was full but all the beets were covered. The vinegar instantly turned red. I then put the cap on and bung it in the fridge.



I guess I should've labelled them with a date and stuff, but we're already eating them so I don't think there'll be a problem. Particularly as it's the only jar we have at the moment.

We had some for lunch and they were really pretty nice. Not too dissimilar to the shop-bought stuff I've had before, mind.