I admire your way of life!
As simple as that.
I believe your beets have grown so big because you took good care of them. They should taste delicious, too.
I boiled some beets that my brother's father-in-law sent us for a present the other day, and we all enjoyed a nice red beet salad with olive oil, some fresh lemon juice, salt, and garlic.
One question:
Why don't you take the whole lettuce root off the ground and then cut the leaves, rather than cutting the leaves one by one and leaving the root into the ground?
If we take it from the ground it is finished where as if we leave it in the ground it continues to grow. We typically have lettuce all year round. It may hard to believe, but you can see us harvesting it in the middle of the winter here: https://steemit.com/homesteading/@brimax/6gonil-snowblowing-our-way-to-lunch