Easily grown, it stores well when fresh, roasts well (wrap in foil to keep from discolouring any other vegetables while cooking) and has a taste so good that, as a garden crop, it should be given more space.

Beetroot is often considered two vegetables in one. The leafy tops can be served in salads or steamed as a ‘green’ vegetable, while different varieties produce different uses for the roots depending upon their size.

Baby-sized globes make admirable pickles. Those known as ‘Cylindrica’ produce a good crop of evenly sized slices for salads or sandwiches. Golden or white beetroot changes the image of the side serve altogether. You can search the internet for other varieties of interest.

Give beetroot a fertile well-draining soil with a pH around neutral. It will not grow in acid ground nor will it perform well where too much lime has been supplied, which leads to a deficiency of trace elements boron and manganese.

While adding manures to the soil before sowing will not lead to forking of the roots as it does with carrots, too much nitrogen produces too much leaf and insufficient root growth.

Perhaps the best crop is one previously manured for a high in nitrogen harvest such as lettuce so that complete fertiliser at around a handful per sq. m. is all that is required.

Beet seed is actually a cluster of several seeds. Sow at a depth of one to two centimetres apart then thin out to between five to eight centimetres apart. Depending on the time of sowing and the size required, the mature crop could be harvested  from between eight to 14 weeks.

Where beetroot is sown to mature in cool weather it can normally be kept in the ground over winter until warmer spring weather sends it to seed. Pests and diseases are minimal and small quantities sown every three to four weeks will ensure a continuous (almost year round) supply.