BEETS AND CHARD 85 



through to the damp lower soil; and, as soon as 

 the surface begins to dry, follow it up with a shal- 

 low cultivation to make it last. As soon as the 

 clumps get big enough for greens, begin to thin 

 them. After a time, the roots will start crowding. 

 Then pull enough to give 3 or 4 inches room. 

 More space will make them grow bigger ; but they 

 will be coarse in texture and will lose in quality 

 of flavor. Use the thinnings, the smallest plants, 

 roots and all, for greens, "pot-herbs." Make a 

 salad of the tiny beets or use them for butter- 

 beets. If the salad is to be tasty and the greens 

 delicious, there must be continuously rapid growth. 

 Slow growth will mean tough and stringy roots 

 and tasteless greens. Flavor lies in closely packed, 

 quickly filled cells. Feed generously and keep up 

 the cultivation. 



When the beets come to maturity, or even with 

 the first thinnings of greens, we will be glad for 

 all the care invested. No greens taste better at 

 that time of the spring than beet greens. They are 

 ready before we stop cutting the asparagus and 

 when the dandelions are getting tough and bitter. 

 Cooked with the tiny beets, when they are fresh 

 and crisp, served with a slice of fried pork or a bit 

 of bacon, they are delicious. As the beets grow a 

 little bigger, like butternuts, they are just right 

 for butter-beets and also for salad. No summer 

 pickle is quite so appetizing as these tiny beets 

 in a sweet pickle. Using the thinnings in these 



