24 "Carrot" Gold

In Beatrix Potter's "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," Peter sneaks into Mr. McGregor's garden, despite his mother's admonitions and eats vegetables - lots of vegetables.  He almost gets caught by Mr. McGregor and was lucky to get out of the garden with his life.  He loses his jacket and shoes getting away and goes home.  He is in trouble with his mother.  Peter's obedient sibling bunnies get a nice meal of milk, bread and blackberries, but Peter goes to bed without supper.  He only gets chamomile tea to help him feel better.

Peter was attracted to the garden and so am I.  The difference is, it is my garden.  Eating vegetables from it doesn't make me sick, and when I leave my garden, I always leave with my jacket and shoes still on.  I don't have a problem with mischievous bunnies in my garden, thank goodness!  If I did, I probably wouldn't have harvested what Tricia and I pulled from the garden on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.  I'm talking carrots.

My carrot crop wasn't as abundant as in prior years, but it wasn't too shabby.  We only pulled the fat, ripe carrots.  There are numerous carrots that will be maturing a little later, and we'll be pulling them up in a couple of weeks when they mature.  Let's take a look.  I normally look at the carrot tops to clue me in on which may be ripe.  This one below catches my attention as a potential carrot that is ready to pull.

Large carrot greens that are lying down instead of standing straight up

Next, I take my thumb and press it around the base of the carrot to give me an idea of the circumference of the carrot beneath the soil.  This one was indeed ready.  If it was small, I would leave it in the ground for later.

A fat Atomic Red Carrot!

Pulling carrots is a rewarding exercise.  There is gold lying beneath the soil!  Walking by, you'd never know it.  I firm tug reveals beautiful carrots that were, up to now, hidden from sight.

A healthy haul

Freshly pulled carrots with the greens attached are the picture of wholesome, healthy garden goodness to me.  As we pull them, we lay them atop the wood mulch that lines the garden around the rows of vegetables and in the walkways.

I always plant a variety of carrots, including Berlicum, Cosmic Purple and Atomic Red along with an Organic rainbow mix of red, purple, orange, yellow and white carrots.

The greens always look pretty, but they wilt quickly.  As always, we share the garden greens with our animals (not Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter), but our cows and chickens.  They love 'em.

Sharing the bounty

After snipping off the greens, we drop them in the produce harvest bucket. 

We took them to the back patio to clean them up.  This is done by pouring some rainwater in the harvest bucket, shaking them vigorously in the water to loosen the soil from the carrots.

Like a gold nugget from a mountain stream, we pull out a gleaming, beautiful carrot.

All cleaned up!

Once done, we have a nice bucket of carrots ready to eat fresh or blanch and freeze.

But we have another product too.  The once sparkling clean rainwater is now laden with topsoil.  We take our soil serious around here.  That goes back to the garden.  I swish it around and pour back over the carrots still maturing.

Carrot harvesting is a rewarding exercise.  I think, like Peter, I'll have a cup of chamomile tea and go to bed.