King Tom’s Beet Farm

One of the great things about owning your own place is you can do whatever you want to your house and property.

Since moving in back in March, The Civee and I have already made some modifications to our house.  As for our backyard, it has needed a lot of work-when we bought the place, there was nothing in the backyard other than a big patch of grass.  No fence, no garden, nothing.

In just a few months, the backyard has come a long way.  The grill stands proudly above an herb garden.  We’ve successfully grown some tasty strawberries.  And while we want to grow our own vegetables, for our first year, we decided to start small.  I had a packet of beet seeds left over from when I thought we’d do some gardening back in our apartment days. The seeds went in the ground early last month and they’ve already grown quite a lot.

We have a nice patch of beets, although they’re growing a bit close together and have to be separated. Separating them is a pain and I have to admit, some of the ones I’ve re-planted haven’t survived.


Hopefully, some of them will survive to be eaten (by the Civee and I, not bugs or animals).  Beets are among the most versatile of all vegetables.  In addition to eating the roots, you can use the greens (also known as chard) also.  You can grill the roots, roast them, shred them and eat them raw with some olive oil and lemon juice.

Next year, I’m sure we’ll plant a few other vegetables and use what I’ve learned this year to make next year’s beets even better.  But hopefully, this year, even with the beets being as crowded as they are, we get enough to do some interesting things with this fall.  Or whenever the beet harvest is- I’m not exactly Dwight Schrute when it comes to beet farming.

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4 thoughts on “King Tom’s Beet Farm

  1. Tom, I’ve been growing beets for a few years now. One thing that I’ve picked up is effective thinning of the crop. Reading that you’ve lost some that were replanted, I’d be happy to make a suggestion. What I’ve done, is in those groups where the beets have become crowded, is to pick the largest. They may, in fact, still be rather small, but we’ll call them baby beets. They tend to be very sweet and are still quite good even small. This will allow you to eat your crop throughout the season, and lose much less. When you pick these early beets, it allows for the crowding to open up and for the smaller beets to grow. Hope that maybe helps a bit. There’s nothing more frustrating that spending a ton of time growing food, just to lose it.

  2. Russ- thanks for the advice! The roots of the ones I’ve transplanted have been very small (thickness of a coffee straw) even though the leaves are bigger. I got a good look at one growing off on its own and the root looked much bigger. We shall see.

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