My local grocery store had a special on organic beets today: $2.99 a bunch, of which the one I grabbed included 3 large beets (2.5 lbs).
I’m eating one now: steamed, with a little balsamic vinegar. Yum.
Fact: Bears eat Beets.
Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica.
Years ago when I was working in radio news I brought in some home-grown vegetables to share with other employees.
I burst into the DJ’s studio waving a handful of oversized beets, while this song was playing.
Not really. I’d eat them, cooked, if they were served to me. I can’t remember when the last time that was, but I have had beets on a few occasions. I’d never get it for myself though.
My mother canned beets when I was a child, so we had them periodically as the dinner veg. I never had a problem with them (I also never noticed that it colored my pee or anything else). They taste the way they taste, which I never associated with dirt. Folks do know they are supposed to peel them, right?
As an adult, they are too much trouble and mess to cook. I occasionally have cold beet salads in restaurants, and those are fine (quite tasty with the right other ingredients). I guess the short answer is that I don’t seek them out, and I don’t particularly avoid them.
I must admit that I’ve never noticed an earthy taste to beets. But the smell when cooking them with the skins on is very earthy. But they are hard to peel without cooking them first so I sometimes splurge and buy the pre-cooked ones available at Trader Joe’s.
There’s beets I peel, and beets I don’t. The older, big, tough ones I peel. The younger small ones and varieties like golden beets, I don’t. You’re certainly not required to peel them.