These beets serve as my opening ceremony to this year's canning season and the recipe comes from my original canning inspiration's new cookbook, Food in Jars

. When a review copy of Marisa's beautiful book showed up in the mail I first squealed like a little school girl, then I got to work marking all of the recipes I couldn't wait to try. I started with this recipe for gorgeous ruby red beets in a gently spiced brine which temporarily stained my stovetop with bright magenta splatters (entirely my fault). Oh, and I totally jumped the gun on letting these guys rest. I opened a jar after only three days and topped my lunch salad with a few beets and they were just as bright and spicy from the sliced ginger as I'd hoped they would be. I'm sure they'll be even more delicious after a few more days in their vinegary bath.

Thank you Marisa for this gorgeous book, I can't wait to use it all summer long!

Gingery Pickled Beets

from Food in Jars by Marisa McClellan

yield, 3 finished pints of beets

The only changes I made to this beautiful recipe were to use wide mouth jars (my local hardware store only carries wide mouth jars, no idea why) and I sliced a jar worth of beets into rounds instead of wedges to pickle and give to my Aussie Burger loving pal. I also had a bit of extra brine that I tossed in a jar with some sugar snap peas I had laying around.

2 lbs red beets

2 cups apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons pickling salt

1 cup sugar

1 cinnamon stick

1 2'' piece of fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced

Scrub the beets, removing the greens and long roots (save the greens, they're edible!). Place the beets in a pot and cover with water. Simmer over medium heat until the beets are just tender, about 30-45 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. When the beets are cool enough to handle, rub the skins off with your fingers. (Wear plastic gloves or resealable plastic bags on your hands if you are averse to pink-stained skin.) Trim the unwieldy ends, cut the beets into wedges, and set aside.

Prepare a boiling water bath and sterilize 3 regular-mouth 1-pint jars. Place the lids in a small saucepan, cover them with water, and simmer over very low heat.

Combine vinegar, 2 cups of waer, salt, sugar, cinnamon stick and ginger slices in a pot and bring the brine to a boil.

Meanwhile, pack the beet wedges into the sterilized jars. Slowly pour the hot brine over the beets in each jar (making sure to include 2-3 ginger slices in each jar), leaving 1/2'' headspace. Gently tap the jars on a towel-lined countertop to help loosen any bubbles before using a wooden chopstick to dislodge any remaining bubbles. Check the headspace again and add more brine if necessary.

Wipe the rims, apply the lids and rings and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Let the pickles cure for at least 1 week before eating.