Fermenting Your Beets.

It's that time of year and as part of your always evolving process of learning to grow your own food, fermenting your beets is a good way not to waste them. I don't really like them to be honest. My beet intake goes no further than a slice in my super smoothies, but not too much because that would make the smoothie taste like dirt.

But I hate waste and I always seem to plant too many beets because they grow so well. I know they are amazing assets to any diet and I will learn to eat them and love them.

Fermenting them is the key. They're healthier fermented, they taste much better, and finally I can just eat them or add them to salads. Probiotics produced during fermentation have many health benefits: improved digestion, enhanced immune system, and better brain function.

It's incredibly easy to do.

1. Make brine (salt water). Use non fluoridated natural spring water if you can and Celtic sea salt or Himalayan pink salt. For every cup of water add a tablespoon of salt. Four cups make a quart jar. Mix it in and let it dissolve.

2. Wash your beets and slide them into long thin slices. The thinner they are, the more they will absorb all the brine.

3. Pack them in the jar (A typical quart size wide mouth canning jar) and fill it up with the brine, leaving about an inch from the top. They say to use something to weight them down so they don't float up and expose themselves to the air. I used a particularly large slice of beet itself to do that. I packed it on top wedging everything down.

4. Cap it and put it in your pantry for 5 to 10 days, or longer. Then you can put it in the fridge to halt the fermenting process. Good luck.