Do you think the flavor of beets has a pleasant earthy note or do you think beets taste like dirt?

 

Your answer depends upon your reaction to a geosmin, a compound that is responsible for the aroma of wet, freshly turned soil. Beets contain geosmin. Your answer may also depend upon the variety of beet-some types have more geosmin than others. It may depend upon how the beets were prepared-removing the peels and adding lemon, vinegar, or another acid denatures some of the geosmin. Finally, your reaction to beets may be due to a genetic makeup that makes you especially sensitive this compound. Scientists think the ability to detect geosmin may have been important evolutionarily because it facilitated locating damp places full of edible plants. If beets remind you of dirt, you may be descended from an esteemed leader who could smell geosmin in the air and lead her tribe to plants, saving them from vitamin deficiency. Scientists have not settled on the answers to these questions; however, there is no doubt that geosmin is the source of the fragrance (or stench) of beets.

 

When I was a girl, my mother "put-up" beets for winter. By summer's end, 30 or more pint jars of dark, red pickled beets lined the shelves in our storage shed. Often on Thursday or Friday, she served a low-cost meal of pinto beans, cornbread, and pickled beets. I was never sure if this meal appeared because money was scarce-my dad was paid at noon on Saturday-or because it was less work-after lunch, put a pot of beans on to simmer; at 6 pm, spend 10 minutes mixing up the cornbread and pop it into the hot oven; at 6:20 pm send Judy to the storage shed to get a jar or two of beets; voila, every nutritional imperative is met, 20 minutes of prep, and all done by 6:30 pm.

 

My mom never served fresh beets. Maybe they tasted like dirt to her.

 

I eat fresh beets often in many delicious forms. If my mother was a still around, I am certain the following recipe would make her a beet fan. I call it  Amazing Beet Salad because it is has no fat, is amazingly easy to prepare, keeps and gets better in the refrigerator, and tastes amazing. 

 

Amazing Beet Salad

4 servings

 

2 cups beets, boiled, peeled, and cut into pieces

2-4 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

1/4 teaspoon salt

 

Mix and refrigerate. Notice the pattern here: For every cup of beets, add 1 or 2 cloves of garlic, 1 teaspoon wine vinegar, and 1/8 teaspoon salt. That way you can just boil, skin, and cut up however many beets you have, measure the amount, and then add the other ingredients in the proportions indicated.

Fresh this Week

VEGETABLES:  Arugula, Asian Greens, Asparagus, Beets, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Chard, Collards, Cucumbers, Dried & Fresh Herbs and Spices, Fennel, Garlic, Greenhouse Tomatoes, Hakurei Turnips, Kale, Kohlrabi, Lettuce (many varieties), Radishes, Scallions, Spring Onions & Garlic, Squash, Zucchini, Squash, and more!

FRUIT: Strawberries