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| Ready for the chest freezer in the garage |
We're about halfway through harvesting and freezing the carrots we planted last fall, and they took a loooooong time to come to maturity. I'm not sure if this is normal for the area, but next year I will be more realistic about expecting fresh carrots by Christmas. Not gonna happen.
There are about 6 bags of sliced, blanched carrots here, and we'll probably put up another 12 bags next week totaling about 20 pounds or so. With these in storage we will be able to add carrots to stews and soups and other dishes all through next fall and winter. Some we will leave fresh, for carrot cake or in salads (notice I listed carrot cake first, once again indicating the place of honor anything sugary has in our household).
Bu preserving at least some of them at home, my family can experience something few people will ever (sadly) ever know the deliciousness of: pulling a bunch of carrots out of the ground and getting them blanched and in the freezer within an hour of harvest. Truly, when these carrots are thawed and put into dishes, they will still be crisp and sweet, much better than the supermarket's frozen or even supermarket "fresh" carrots. (After all, if they're in the store now, when were they picked/harvested? A week ago perhaps, maybe more?) As for the ones we eat fresh, well, those are also incredibly delicious. But there's something especially nice about pulling up a spring or summer crop, freezing it, and then enjoying a taste of that season in late fall or winter, when the days are short and a little spring on your plate can remind you of warm, sunny days to come.
Carrots are one crop I would recommend making room for, if you have room to garden. They may be slow to mature, but the result is worth it.
Congratulations! That has to be a wonderful feeling filling your freezer with things you grew. That's so odd the carrots took longer--were they an heirloom variety? I grew carrots for the first time last spring and they were ready at about 65 days I think. Maybe because it's so much more humid here in the summer? More of a greenhouse environment. I grew mine in a galvanized tub with 1/2 potting soil, 1/4 compost, and 1/4 sand. Our soil is concrete in the summer so unless heavily, heavily amended just doesn't work for long beautiful carrots.
ReplyDeleteIt will be a great feeling when your garden is asleep for the season but awake in your kitchen! ...and...carrot cake with homegrown carrots. Sounds amazing to say the very least.
I have never heard of growing carrots in containers before! That is brilliant. It must have looked pretty, too, I love galvanized tubs. I planted my carrots the first week in October, so I had 180 days to wait until harvest. Crazy! I think it's because it's a fall/winter crop here, but it does get down to about 20 degrees at night so growth basically STOPS until spring I guess. I will just plan on it next year, and expect the wait. As long as my freezer's stocked I can be patient, lol.
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