• Scrub beets in cold water to remove any dirt.
• Depending on the size of your beets, you may have to cut the larger beets into smaller pieces, so they will cook evenly.
• Place in a large pot, preferable on an outdoor stove.  (This saves a lot of messes in my kitchen).
• Cover with water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Boil beets until they are soft.
• Remove from pot, being sure to save the beet juice leftover from cooking beets, as it will be part of the pickling liquid.
• After the beets are cool enough to handle, peel and chop into bite sized pieces.
• Place beets back into large pot, measuring as you go so you know how much pickling liquid to make.
• For every 4 quarts of beets, you will need approximately 2 cups of pickling liquid.
• Mix up equal parts of sugar, vinegar and the liquid from cooking the beets to equal the amount of pickling liquid needed.
• Pour over beets and bring to a full rolling boil, reduce heat to a simmer.
• Wash jars and get lids and rings ready.

Open Kettle Canning Method:

• While the beets remain at a simmer, quickly ladle them into the jars and fill each jar with hot brine leaving ½" headspace at the top of the jar.  Quickly wipe the rim of the jar and place a lid and ring on each jar immediately after filling it.  This is easiest to do with two people.  One person filling jars, and one person putting lids on and tightening them.
• Allow to sit at least 12 hours at room temperature to seal.
• This method is perfectly safe even for a low-acid food like beets, because we are pickling them and placing them in a high acid environment.  

Water Bath Canning Method:

• If you prefer, you can put beets and pickling liquid into jars, even if they’re not still simmering.
• Place lids and rings on jars and hand tighten.
• Process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes.
• Allow to sit at least 12 hours at room temperature to seal.
• If you have any jars that don’t seal from either canning method, you can either put them in the refrigerator to eat within a few weeks, or process them again using the water bath canning method.
• Remove rings, label and store on your pantry shelves.  These beets will keep for a long time on the shelf.  
• If you have any leftover brine, you can make some hard-boiled eggs and place them in a mason jar and cover with the beet brine.  Allow to sit in the refrigerator for a few days, and you'll have the best and prettiest pickled eggs you've ever seen.