How To Pickle Beets, part 2

August 5, 2009

The Beets are finally done! I meant to take photos of the whole process but I forgot too. It was hot, I was nervous, and I forgot.

It wasn't as hard as I had thought it would be. Since I had prepared the beets on Saturday all we had to do was prepare the jars, make the pickle solution and put them in the canner. I had originally planned on doing it in the kitchen that is in my basement (my house actually has 2 kitchens), but one of my sister's friends wanted to help and she brought her daughter with her so we ended up doing it on the back patio on the BBQ side burner. Im not so sure that was the right thing to do, I had a hard time regulating the pressure, it kept getting to high and I had to turn off the burner and let the pressure go down and then turn it back on so next time I will be doing it on the stove in the basement kitchen. I can't do it on the stove in the main kitchen because its a ceramic top and the manufacturer does not advise canning on it.

Anyway, here is a photo of my pressure canner. Its a 23 quart Presto we bought from Amazon.com this winter. We got a great deal on it, less then $80.00 with the shipping.

And here is the final result, 19 1/2 pints of pickled beets. I gave a couple to Laura's friend and sent a few back to Bellingham with Laura for our grandmother.

The only people in my home that actually like these things are my mother and sister so these should last all winter. When my mom gets home this fall, we are going to try to buy a couple bushels of Tomatos (if they are still around) at the Farmer's Market and make up some salsa and stuff like that. I might try making regular pickles now since I got a feel for how the canner works and they can be water-bathed instead of pressure canned (which I think will be easier).