Pulled up a Neat-Looking Carrot

Tricia and I spent Saturday working in the garden.  It was hard work, but enjoyable.  In my childhood, my grandmother would often give us spoons out of the silverware drawer and tell us to "go outside and dig in the dirt."  That's exactly what we did!  Tricia and I had old spoons and we worked our way down the rows, digging out oxalis.  This pervasive weed has proliferated due to some faulty information I had.  I thought it was a type of clover and that it was setting nitrogen.  I was wrong!  I left it alone and it multiplied!  Time to take it out.  We used our spoons to dig it up by the bulbs and tossed it over to the chickens who quickly devoured it.  Russ and Benjamin really helped as well.  I don't think they were quite as tired out as we were, though.

Once we removed a lot of the oxalis, we transplanted the tomato and pepper plants into the freshly cleaned out rows.  Then, in order to make room to plant green beans next weekend, we decided to pull the remaining carrots that were still in the ground.  We pulled up some beautiful purple carrots, red carrots, and of course, orange carrots.  We always pull up some strange ones, too! 

Here is one that looks like someone walking on a track or treadmill, exercising in tight orange workout pants!  Gotta get that cardio workout in, right?  We got plenty of that working in the garden.  I guess the carrots do too.

To get a proper work-out, you much stretch.  This carrot looks as if it is twisting at the torso to really stretch out the oblique muscles.

In reading more about what causes deformed or split-roots in carrots, I learned that it can be caused by rocks in the ground or compacted soil.  We don't have rocks in South Louisiana, so it can't be that.  Our garden soil has years of compost and leaves that have been amended, yielding moist, pliable soil, so it can't be that either.

The other culprit is something called root-knot nematodes.  Nematodes are invisible organisms that feed on and cause nodules to form on the roots.  I don't see any indication of that.  Finally a disease called phytoplasma aster can cause this, but it is evidenced by fuzzy roots on the carrot and often a yellow coloration.  I see none of that.

I'm unsure of what causes it, but I am sure of what we'll do with it.  We'll eat it, of course!  Our exercise carrot inspired continued exercising in the garden.