This is an Italian heirloom from the town of Chioggia, near Venice, and has been popular since the early 1800s. It's beautiful and sweet flavored. Sliced roots look like bull's-eyes having concentric rings of white alternating with wine-red. The green leaves are an excellent spinach substitute.

• Pick the greens when they are 4-6 inches long and the roots are less than 2 inches in diameter.
• Harvest roots at 1 inch for baby beets, up to 3 inches for mature beets.
• Store fall-harvested beets at 33-35°F at 95% humidity.
• Cook beet greens like spinach.
• Beet roots can be pickled, grilled, baked or broiled.
• To prevent red beets from excessive “bleeding” in cooking, wait until after cooking to peel, remove taproots and slice. Trim off the tops about 1 inch above the roots and wash carefully with a vegetable brush. Boil until tender, then plunge into cold water. When cool enough to handle, slip the skins off with your fingers and remove the little taproots. Slice the beets, or serve whole.