My Ukrainian Baba used to tell my mother that borscht was good enough for the people and good enough for the cattle. In those days, however, no one would think of feeding good beet tops to the cattle. In the Old Country before the war, and even after coming to Canada and to the prairies, you counted yourself lucky if you had enough beets, carrots, potatoes and onions to last out the winter. Borscht is a basic vegetable soup with beets, but the special change comes from the addition of vinegar and sugar. Without vinegar and sugar, all you have is boring old vegetable soup.
If you plant too many beets in the garden, rest assured you can make borscht all winter long just like in the Old Country.