cold weather makes super sweet carrots!

Baby carrots! I harvested them last week and I'm amazed how delicious they are. Really really sweet and very crisp. I wonder if the frosts and cold weather improve their flavor. .... Internet search .... Yes, it does! I didn't know that.

"In order to defend itself against the cold, [carrots have] developed all these amazing physiological responses, including increasing the sugar content. Increasing the sugar content helps defend against ice crystal formation, which can do all kinds of terrible things to cells like dehydrate them, crush them, rupture them. ... this increase in sugar content helps defend the carrot against frost and cold." UCLA's Liz Roth-Johnson

This is called "cold sweetening" and happens to lots of vegetables. I knew it happened with parsnips, kale, and Brussels sprouts. I just didn't expect these carrots to be so sweet!

The variety is Mokum. I planted in the middle of August, worrying that it was too late in the season to get a crop. I'll make this date for the future and will plant lots more of them!

carrots

I looked up the cause for carrots splitting - uneven watering. I didn't know that. I suppose its not bad to have only one split carrot in the bunch. But I have lots of bifurcated carrots. Hmmm. Rocky soil. I'll keep working on that. They all tasted great.

more 2012 crop reviews

Carrots. I didn't do a good job with carrots this year. Lots of room for improvement here next year. I've grown great carrots in the past, but for some reason, decided to experiment this year. I learned what not to do. Carrots sprout slowly and they need to stay moist. This is hard for me since I grow them at my community plot and don't have time to go water every day. So I sowed my carrots in pots and and transplanted the seedlings, like I do for nearly every other crop I grow. The results were terrible - short, badly misshapen, bi-, tri- and quadru-furcated roots. Next year, my plan is to dirext sow and use burlap the hold the moisture.

Chiles. Overall a very good year for chiles. I grew lots of NuMex Joe E Parker, poblanos,Thai hots and cayenne. Also a yellow bell that never turned yellow, but was very nice as a green bell pepper. I tried some other varieties also, but these did the best for me.

Cucumbers. It was a super cuke year! I had 6 or 8 varieties, long and short ones, white and green ones. I love to grow way too many cucumbers. Diva is still my favorite variety, but a close second is the long and crispy Sooyow Nishiki. Cucumbers do well in the very protected and slightly shady space my side yard.

Eggplant. My eggplants got shaded by my cucumbers this year. They eventually produced a nice crop, late in the season. I like the little bicolor Thai variety (Tiger) and a big purple oval one (Classic). I'll try to remember to give them more space next year.

Garlic. A bad garlic year. :-( I planted 100 cloves last fall, but at least half of it rotted in the ground. I think because I planted too late and did not mulch. We had a nearly snow free winter, and the soil in my garlic bed was like hardpan it was so dry. I havested about 40 nice big cloves. With so few, I didn't have enough to eat and plant next year. I bought some new seed garlic: The variety Music, which I am looking forward to trying. My current variety is Duganski.

Green beans.

to the start of another week - cheers!

Today I pulled the carrots I sowed in August. Pretty baby carrots. Somehow a rabbit seems to have found his way into the garden and ate off most of the carrot greens. I am fascinated that he only ate the carrots. Next year I am planning a chicken wire tunnel over the carrots.

I ended up harvesting about a dozen heads of lettuce today as there may be a hard frost tonight. Some lettuce plants I dug and moved into my cold frame to see how they do there over the winter. I also harvested leeks, walking onions, Savoy cabbage, bok choi, baby beets and baby carrots.

To end the day, we tried a new combination of veggies in a martini: baby carrots, walking onions and an olive. I highly recommend it!

truth or myth? you can't transplant carrots

I heard you can't transplant carrots because the roots end up crooked. I thought I'd just be very careful to dig a deep hole and straighten the root as I transplanted. Hmmm. No such luck. I had to learn the hard way. I threw out my second batch of seedlings without transplanting them. I will go back to direct sowing. I think carrots (and parsnips) are the only crop I don't transplant.

harvests

Here's what I harvested yesterday. Cukes, onions and carrots. I like having lots of BIG carrots.

a beautiful day in the garden

Today's harvest is a big pile of carrots (Bolero and Oxheart), the last of my beets (White Detroit and Lutz) and a few more potatoes.

My garlic is all planted. Lots of it. Four orders of garlic is a LOT! I'm looking forward to a big harvest next summer. I mulched it with salt marsh hay that has saved well for a second winter now.

And I finished up composting and planting cover on one bed. The corn bed, where squash will go next year. Three more to go.

I pruned the dead growth from my espaliered pear. My Barlett is looking good. I'm hoping for fruit next year. I was about to remove my second tree, a Parker pear, but was pleased to find what looks like live wood upon close inspection. I'll wait and see if it will leaf out this spring.

I've been finding all sorts of small garden tools that I lost throughout the season. The garden is regaining order after a prolific season with way too much planted in a little space.

this week's harvests

I pulled a bunch of beets this week: Chiogga, Lutz and White Detroit. Also carrots: Oxheart, Mokum and Bolero (a lot of funky shapes!).

And my onions grown from sets: variety is Stuttgarter. Onions will stay in the garden 3 or 4 days to dry for storage. Its a good time with several days of dry weather ahead.

November harvest - carrots

Yesterday I harvested a big bunch of carrots. My only harvest this week. I still have so many vegetables between my gardens and my half winter share from Belmont CSA. My vegetable drawer is full to overflowing. We eat a lot of veggies, but there's a limit. The nice thing is how well most of the winter vegetables keep.

I noticed these carrots are kind of hairy. This can happen in soil that is too fertile (too much nitrogen) or waterlogged (not recently). Hmmm. I thought my N was low - guess not.

carrots (Daucus carota)

big fat Oxheart carrots

I pulled the last of my spring crop of carrots. These are the big guys - Oxheart. They are very tasty. Round and fat like and orange. They make a very nice "chip" when sliced horizontally. I still have a big bagful of early carrots (Mokum), a more traditionally shaped and sweeter variety, in my fridge. I took out the bagful for a photo next to the newly pulled Oxhearts.

I planted a few more rows of carrots seeds for a fall crop a couple of weeks ago. They sprouted nicely, but I'm afraid I buried most of them while digging the potatoes. Oh well....

Daucus carota

lots of carrots

I have been pulling alot of carrots this past week. They are ripening fast.

I planted three varieties this year. In the top photo, Mokum is the bunch of five or so on the left, Oxheart is the two fat ones in the middle (also the sliced ones in the second photo with the giant cores), and two Coreless Amsterdam are at the right.

Mokum is an early variety that has been really nice. I recommend it and will plant it again next year. Nicely shaped bright orange roots. Gretta, the farmer at our local CSA recommended it to me. Thanks Gretta!

The Oxheart and Coreless Amsterdam are not ready for pulling yet. The first are big, but still very tart flavor. I think these will sweeten up later. Most of the Coreless Amsterdam are still quite small.

Last year I had trouble with my carrots. The root worms got to them. My neighbor Dave suggested that once the carrots sweeten up, the worms are probably more attracted to them. I bet he's right. So I am trying to pull all the carrots I can eat. Only minor root damage to far.

The other carrot pest in my community garden seems to be snails. They take big bites out of the carrots tops - but only a few carrots are affected. Not a concern worth worrying about yet.

Below is a photo of my carrot bed. I planted patches of carrots with onions in between. There are some big marigolds mixed in too that haven't flowered yet.




Daucus carota

carrot bed

Yesterday morning I planted a bed full of carrots, parsnips and onions at my new community garden plot. I planted seeds for the carrot varieties Mokum, Oxheart and Coreless Amsterdam and the parsnip variety Cobham Improved Marrow. Also Stuttgart onion sets. I alternated carrots with onions, hoping the rabbits won't smell the carrots with all the onion smell. We have two days of rain coming, so I think they'll get off to a good start.

Daucus carota

carrot problems

Aarrgg! My carrots are all infested with root maggots. They look disgusting. I will have to pull and dispose of the entire crop. Very disappointing.

Root maggot controls include crop rotation, immediate turning of soil in the fall, beneficial nematodes, and row covers. Next year I hope to plant my carrots in my new community garden plot, which will have more sun. It looks like people there worry more about rabbits as carrots are covered with chicken wire not fabric.

Daucus carota

oxheart carrots

Oxheart is an old heirloom variety that grows enormous - short, fat roots up to 1 lb or more. I harvested a nice bunch of these last night for dinner. They tasted great.

Daucus carota

fresh garden carrots

My carrots get sweeter as the winter goes on. These are very sweet. Many are still in the garden. The lettuce, parsley and garlic are looking good. This week is bringing record warmth (in the 60's!) and the plants seem to be growing again.

Daucus carota

carrots

Yum! Its carrot season. I harvest a few a day and we munch on them raw before dinner. I probably still have a million out there in the dirt. I am going to see how they overwinter. I have read that carrots will keep in the garden until used without splits or loss of flavor. I'd like to mulch with some hay, if I can find a bale. Preferably salt marsh hay.

FYI: These are Red Core Chantenay carrots (Daucus carota var. sativus), a common home garden carrot variety since 1929. Often judged a best tasting carrot. Its a stocky, tapered, rich orange-colored variety that is good for rocky New England soils since it is short rooted (5-7 inches). I think I'll grow some of these again next year.

Cooked carrots with parsley

Daucus carota






I don't think I've ever grown enough carrots to really taste them. Last Tuesday, I pulled a big bunch and cooked enough to make five nice servings. They were delicious. Like a home grown tomato, a whole different flavor than store bought. I think I'll expand my carrot crop next year with some different varieties.

Carrot harvest

My carrots are ready to pull. Here's a nice one. About 5 or 6 inches I think. And fat. And only a little bifurcated. And delicious. An interesting sweet and very carroty taste that you don't get in the store bought ones. We ate this one fresh - carrot chip slices.

Daucus carota

Carrots

My mom helped me thin my carrots today. The row is sooo thick its taken over half of a raised bed. (It was only one packet of seeds!) I've been pulling a few now and then, but it needed more work than that. I was glad I could recruit some help. The good news is that the carrot roots are getting nice and big now. Edible size. Yum!

Daucus carota