Canning & Preserving

Pickled Beets from the Garden

Name: Pickled Beets from the Garden
Total time: 2 h
Yield: Varies by harvest
Ingredients: Fresh garden beets, tops trimmed; 6 cups vinegar (5% acidity); 3 cups water; 2 cups sugar; 1 tbsp canning salt; Canning jars with new lids and clean rings

Beets are one of the crops we sow straight into the garden, and pickled beets are how most of them end up. The brine is the part we never change: 6 cups vinegar, 3 cups water, 2 cups sugar, and 1 tablespoon salt.

2 hrsVaries by harvestJump to Recipe

Four jars of home-canned pickled beets cooling on a striped kitchen towel

Before You Start: Canning Safety

Pickled beets are acidified by the vinegar brine, so a boiling water bath is appropriate. Plain beets with no vinegar are low-acid and would have to be pressure canned instead.

Use vinegar of at least 5% acidity and don't dilute the brine beyond what the recipe calls for. Follow current Ball or NCHFP guidance for processing times and altitude.

Pulling and cooking the beets

We pull the beets, trim the tops, and cook them until a fork slides in easily. Once they're cool enough to handle, the skins slip right off — that's the whole trick to peeling beets without a fight.

The brine we always use

6 cups vinegar, 3 cups water, 2 cups sugar, and 1 tablespoon salt, brought to a boil. It's sweet and sharp in equal measure, and it's the ratio we come back to every season.

Packing and processing

The beets get sliced or quartered and packed into hot jars, then covered with the boiling brine leaving the headspace our recipe calls for. Rims wiped, lids finger-tight, and into the water bath.

Jars of pickled beets cooling on a kitchen towel after canning — Finished pickled beets cooling on the towel.

Let them sit

They're edible right away, but they're better after a couple of weeks on the shelf. The brine needs time to get all the way through the beets.

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