Sweet Merlin

Sweet Merlin is the name Renee's Garden puts on its roasting beet, an F1 hybrid the company says beet breeders selected specifically for how it behaves in the oven, where a high sugar load concentrates rather than cooking out flat. The pitch is culinary rather than agronomic: this is aimed at cooks who want a beet that roasts to sweetness wrapped in foil at 350°F and holds fine flavour whether pulled small or grown out fully, without the woodiness that catches out older varieties left too long in the ground. The name overlaps with the widely catalogued Merlin F1, a high-sugar dark red hybrid sold at a comparable 48–55 day maturity by Johnny's and Territorial, but no source consulted states outright that the two are the same seed. Renee's recommends it for roasting, salads, main dishes and pickling.