This amusing Dutch expression is used for those terrible situations when just everything seems to be going wrong. It can also be used when one is in serious trouble.

A mountain made of beets is guaranteed to be extremely slippery. To try and climb one would be a very unpleasant exercise in futility indeed.

Linguists think that this quirky expression comes from a time when farmers with beet carts had to cross bridges or mountains.

Whenever a farmer crossed to the other side, a few beets would inevitably fall off their cart. The bridge would gradually become slick with crushed beets.

As a result, if you weren’t careful, you would slip; or even worse, your beet cart could entirely slide off the bridge.