The Accidental Locavore's Most Hated Vegetable. Is It Yours?

The Accidental Locavore is not a fan of beets. Let me be honest here...the Accidental Locavore despises beets! I will not eat them cooked, I will not eat them raw, I will not eat them borshted, I will not eat them pickled, I will not eat them red, I will not eat them golden (and I will hate you for trying to make them look like good vegetables!). I do not like the color, I do not like the smell.

Somewhere in my childhood, something traumatic must have happened with beets, since it's not only me. If you ask my brother (independent of me) about beets, he'll give you the same response, as will my dad. Might as well eat dirt.

So Mom, what did you do to us that we all loathe beets? The Accidental Locavore's mother takes no responsibility for this family-wide disgust with the small round red root vegetables. Instead, when quizzed, she tried to deflect it to her two sisters. Now I can count the number of meals I've had cooked by the two of them on the fingers of one hand (probably with fingers to spare, but I won't exaggerate), so I really doubt they have anything to do with it. Sorry Mom.

The ironic side of this tale is that the Accidental Locavore is married to a man who loves beets (as much as I loathe them). When they come up in my farm box what do I do? Trying not to inhale, I cut the tops off leaving about an inch of green (supposedly this keeps them from "bleeding" too much), wash them and wrap each beet in aluminum foil (drizzle a little olive oil on if you'd like).Toss them on a cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes (depending on size) until they are tender. When they've cooled off enough to touch, the skins should slip right off. Then it's up to the person who likes them to chill and slice up in a salad with goat cheese, or while still warm "pickle" them by quartering them and tossing with some red wine vinegar and chopped red onion. Chill or cool to room temperature. Serve and enjoy.

As it turns out, this week's farm basket contained two bunches of beets. The Accidental Locavore strongly suspects that is why Farmer Paul didn't respond to my question about writing a recipe for him for the market. Luckily, along with the beets, was a box of even nicer strawberries than last week (possibly a different variety?), more sugar snap peas which were tossed in olive oil and grilled (delicious, try them like that), purple asparagus and red leaf lettuce.

Do you have a vegetable you won't eat under any circumstances? What is it?