Growing fall veggies with Scott’s Miracle-Gro

This post brought to you by Scotts Miracle-Gro. All opinions are 100% mine.

Canning beets

Living in Georgia has some benefits.  One of them is the fact that we can plant year-round. The winters here are generally mild and most cold weather crops love the Georgia winter.

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The folks at Scott’s Miracle-Gro are currently offering some great Fall gardening information in their website entitled, Find beauty in the Fall.  Their website allows you to select your region and covers such things as:

-Adding Fall Color
-Growing Cool Weather Edibles
-Planting bulbs for the spring
-Planting trees and shrubs

Since I am virtually unlimited in what I can plant, I’m thinking about putting in some lettuce, spinach and beets when the weather gets a bit cooler this fall.  For a project like this, Miracle-Gro offers:

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Miracle-Gro® Garden Soil for Flowers & Vegetables that is specially formulated for annuals, perennials, and vegetables. It improves existing soil to build strong roots and  
feeds up to 3 months with Miracle-Gro® Continuous Release Plant Food. 
-Miracle-Gro® LiquaFeed®, which makes feeding as easy as watering. It feeds plants through leaves and roots and is for use with all flowers, vegetables, trees and shrubs.

And what would I make with those veggies?  Well, I will definitely be canning some beets!  Growing up in Pennsylvania, pickled beets were always considered a treat.  And my mother’s recipe is the best thing sinced sliced bread.  Want to know how?

Mom’s Pickled Beets

Canning Beets

Begin by cutting the top off of the beet, leaving about two inches of stem.  Do not cut the bottom.  

Canning beets

Place them all in boiling water and cook for about an hour until you can stick a fork in the beet easily.  Sort of like cooking a potato for mashing.  Drain your beets and sit aside to cool.  While they cool you will want to make up the brine.  You will need:

6 cups of apple cider vinegar
3-5 cups of sugar
3 tsp. salt
1 cup water

Mix everything together in a large pot and bring to a boil.  Keep your brine on the stove simmering.  Your beets should be cool enough not to work with, so you want to cut the ends off and peel them.  Cut them into chunks and place them in a big bowl.
Canning beets
By now, you will have had all your jars and lids and rings in the boiling water to sterilize them.  You should have your hot water bath canner filled with boiling water also.  You are now ready to can your beets.
Canning beets
Fill the hot sterilized jars to about one inch of the brim with beets and brine.  Make sure to wipe away any excess juice from the rim of the jar before placing the lid and ring on it.  Place the jars into the canner.  Continue until your canner is full.  Allow them to boil in the canner for 30 minutes.
Canning Beets
Remove the jars carefully.  Your jars will soon seal and you will have beautiful pickled beets to share with your family and friends.
Be sure to check out the Miracle-Gro Facebook page , where you can talk to fellow gardeners and share stories.
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