Beets Me

This past Sunday I decided to make a beet chocolate cake.  My spouse had come across the recipe, but never had the opportunity to bake this particular cake.  We had beets available from our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share. With my spouse's assistance we cooked and then pureed three beets to get at least the one and one-half cups required for the recipe.  While our CSA provided us with red beets, I did grow a few golden beets in our garden.  My garden beets were rather small, about the size of a golf ball, and were considerably smaller than the red beets provided by the CSA.

Beet Chocolate Cake, made Oct. 4 (photo by author)

Some people, like one of my older siblings, likes to eat beets.  But me?  Not so much. They are good for you as they contain a great deal of fiber and vitamin C.  To the weight conscious, they are also fat free and low in calories.  So, you can get your fiber with few calories and no fat.  What a way to keep the plumbing in your body in good shape.  Beet tops can also be eaten,and they too contain good amounts of fiber and C, but also contain vitamin A.  Table beets also contain more sugar than any other vegetable, and that includes sweet corn and carrots.  Growing up my parents would eat beets; in particular I recall my Dad eating them.  Back then they were mostly boiled, or perhaps steamed.  You can, however, eat them raw or cooked.  Today you see beet top greens with their red stems turning up in pre-made salad mixes.  Of course, pre-made or pre-mixed salads are an invention of the late 20th century. Another convenience for the modern consumer too busy to take time to make a salad.  Since you can eat the beet raw, you could consider shredding some on your salad with the beet tops, arugula, lettuce, spinach and what ever other greens one chooses to eat.

One interesting fact, that I read on a California agricultural web site is that nationwide only about 10,000 acres of beets are grown in the United States.  In California, beets are mainly grown for their greens--used in those pre-made salads.  Beet greens last more than a week, which is necessary for the pre-made salads.  But, here is the kicker, that article also stated that about half of all table beets are grown in one state, which is Wisconsin.  I never would have guessed that Wisconsin would produce so much of this one crop.  Beets, both table and sugar, do well in our climate.  Sugar beets are, obviously, related to table beets, but get large, like a foot long and can weigh up to five pounds. Perhaps it is more than climate that made Wisconsin a grower of beets, but also ethnic heritage.

Sugar Beets

A common crop grown in Bohemia and the Czech Republic in the 19th century were beets.  They were not grown simply to be eaten, but for the production of sugar. Wisconsin's climate and geography reminded Czech immigrants to the United States of their native land and so Wisconsin became home to a good number of Czech immigrants.  It was not that long ago that transportation was not only time consuming, but was also expensive. The most cost effective method of transportation for many goods is by ship, and inland countries like Bohemia would probably find it more cost effective to grow beets and produce their own sugar.  The first factory to produce sugar from beets was established in 1801 in a region sometimes regarded as part of Bohemia--Lower Silesia. Beets are thought to have been part of "push" factor for Bohemian immigrants to the United States.  Small farms were being gobbled by larger operations to grow beets for sugar. Like much of the this part of Europe, this area was subjected to various rulers over time--including Poland, Germany and Hapsburg Austria.

Former Sugar Factory as seen today

An old, once elegant building in Madison behind Olbrich Gardens was first used to produce sugar from beets. Today we know the building as the old Garver Feed Mill, but it was first owned and operated by the US Sugar Company.  Sugar--a dentist full employment act.  Today, sugar beets produce about one-third of the world's supply of sugar.  This makes sense, as most every culture uses sugar, and not all are sufficiently fortunate to import sugar made from sugar cane.

Beet to Sugar Factory in Madison, was known as the "Sugar Castle"

Table beets generally are a deep red, and in fact this natural color is sometimes used to make lemonade pink, and is even used to add a fuller red color to tomato sauces. I should probably become a bigger fan of beets. But for now, I will continue to enjoy my beet cake.  I found that I can make the cake even better by slathering one of my favorite foods on top of a piece of that cake--peanut butter,  Now, I ask, what other writer would tie in beets, Bohemian immigration, a historic building in Madison, WI and a cake in one blog post?

Unless otherwise noted, all images from Google images