The 2019 Carrot Harvest

We planted 3 rows of carrots this year.  One half of a row was some Seeds of Change Carrot Medley.  One half of the row was Danvers Orange and Berlicum Carrots.  Then we had one row of Cosmic Purple Carrots and one row of Atomic Red Carrots.  I like a lot of color on my plate!  Here are the rows of carrots with our 'clean-up crew' waiting for carrot greens to be tossed over the fence.

Here is a nice sampling of the Carrot medley.  There are orange carrots, yellow carrots, white carrots, red carrots and purple carrots.  All fat and healthy.

Some of the carrots have odd shapes, but many are just perfect.  I was a little concerned about them due to all the rain, but all of them did exceptional except for the orange carrots.  About half of them were rotten because I waited too long to pick them.

Here is a mixture of Cosmic Purple and Atomic Red Carrots just after being hosed down.  Their colors really pop after being sprayed off.  Once done, I take the topsoil-laden water and go pour it back in the garden.

Many of the carrots will be eaten raw, roasted in the oven, shredded in cole slaw and for making homemade egg rolls.  The rest will be blanched and frozen.  We decided to blanch some of the Seeds of Change "Rainbow" Carrots since they are so pretty.  Look at the different colors:

We chop them up so they'll blanch evenly.  We have one of those handy chopper things that does a nice job in chopping things up.  It's one of those "As Seen on TV" things that actually works.  Just glancing at the colors, you wouldn't think that these are carrots, but they are.

We blanch them, chill them and bag them up.

We'll put these in the freezer and eat on throughout the year.  In all, we put up 18 quart-sized freezer bags of carrots.

Pulling Up Carrots

With spring weather upon us and spring planting already underway, it becomes imperative to begin harvesting some of the winter crops in order to make room for beans, corn, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, okra, etc.  That would include harvesting three rows of carrots.  I had already harvested some carrots here and there, but Saturday was a beautiful day for pulling the rest of the carrots out of the ground.

Of the three rows of carrots, one of the rows were Atomic Red variety, another was Cosmic Purple variety, and the final a normal orange Berlicum Carrot.  Our carrot crop was the worst crop we've had in 3 or 4 years in terms of yield and of quality. The size was just not like in previous years.  I blame that on a couple of things. First we had 9 inches more rainfall than in average years.  It was very wet and I planted all the carrots in the lowest part of the garden, so the soil stayed too wet resulting in stunted carrots that didn't really grow well.  Don't get me wrong, we will eat them all - even the baby ones.  Homegrown carrots are so sweet.  Seriously. They don't compare to store-bought.  It's like a whole different product.  

Let's go to work.  What I do is I use a shovel to loosen the soil around the carrots and then I pull them up by the carrot tops. 

A couple of nice carrots in the process of being pulled up

I have a bucket of rainwater handy and I wash the fresh-pulled carrots removing the topsoil.  Later I'll pour the topsoil-laden water on top of my young potato crop that needs a good watering.  That way the topsoil will stay in the garden versus being washed down the drain.

Cleaning the carrots

The photos don't really do them justice, but these are Atomic Red carrots.  They are the prettiest, in my opinion, because they have a reddish tinge and are sort of translucent. 

Atomic Red Carrots in rainwater

Here are the Atomic Red carrots after washing.  Yes, the cows were more than happy to take the greens off my hands.  All the cows, the goat and even the chickens made quick work of the carrot tops that I tossed over the fence.

These are the Cosmic Purple carrots.  Now, these are a little deceiving because they are not purple through and through.  It is just their skins that are purple.  The center is orange like a normal carrot. Still they are interesting looking.  All three varieties taste the same to me - outstanding.

Cosmic Purple Carrots

After the initial cleaning in the rainwater buckets, I laid out the harvested carrots on our picnic table bench and our garden wagon.  Then I sprayed them off with a water hose to get any remaining dirt off of the carrots.  Once they're dry I'll bring them inside and we'll begin eating them and processing them using several different methods.

The second carrot bath

In what ended up being a visual feast, I gathered a colander full of different varieties and sizes of freshly picked carrots.  I like this picture.

A colorful colander

With the warmer weather, our lettuce is going to start bolting, so we've been eating lots of salads with fresh sliced carrots.  We'll blanch and freeze some and we'll also show you another neat way we preserve our delicious carrots a little later this week.

Harvesting Carrots 2015

Right between the row of Russian Red Kale and the row of Bull's Blood Beets, we have 3 rows of carrots, each with a different variety planted on it.  The last row has Cosmic Purple Carrots, the middle has Atomic Red Carrots and the first has normal (boring, I guess) Orange Berlicum Carrots. The purple carrots seem to grow faster and get big and fat, so I've been pulling a few of those up to enjoy.  We only have half a row of them left.

Today I planned to harvest all of the carrots that were prime size on all three rows so I grabbed some five gallon buckets and got situated.  We've had some rain lately so the ground was moist and easy to pry the fat carrots out of the rich soil by hand. We have had years where it was dry and that makes pulling them hard, and you end up breaking some of the carrots off in the ground.

What's left of the Cosmic Purple Row

The greenery on the carrots was beautiful, but you never know what's underneath the greens and the soil, until you start pulling.

Carrot Greens on the Atomic Red and Berlicum Rows

I would say carrot pulling is back-breaking labor, except it's not.  I started in the morning after milking and weeding and I wasn't in a rush.  I had a glass of grape juice, it was cool and overcast, and I could hear the chickens clucking and singing the little song they sing after laying an egg.  Of course the cows meandered over and began softly lowing, begging for the greens.  It was a peaceful morning, no fuss, no deadlines - one of those days that you thank the Good Lord you are alive to enjoy.

Another reason it is not back-breaking labor is because I'm literally sitting down on the job.  We have a handy little garden chair on wheels that is the most perfect carrot-pulling apparatus known to mankind. We originally purchased it for my grandmother, Bumby, so she could plant her caladium bulbs in her flower beds in comfort.  She enjoyed that so much.  She had a green thumb for sure. When she passed away, we inherited the garden chair and it is a nice reminder of her and her love for rooting around in her flower beds.  The seat has a lid that you can lift up and store all sorts of gardening supplies in it.  As I pulled the carrots, I'd just roll forward.  Lazy, I guess, but that's what weekends are for.

The Rolling Garden Chair

Here are some fresh pulled Cosmic Purple Carrots.  They are not purple through and through.  Just the outer skins are purple.  When you cut into them they are orange on the inside.  When you cook them with a little water, they turn the water purple!

Here are some regular orange carrots.  Unremarkable and boring, I assume, but they sure taste good. The carrot tops (greens) are a favorite of the cows.  I'm told they are good for human consumption if you juice them, but we've never tried them.

And finally, here are the Atomic Red Carrots.  They are red through and through. The beautiful red color is sort of translucent and beautiful to look at when you cut them.

After I'd heard enough begging I began to carry handfuls of carrot greens to the cows.  You can only see Rosie's ear in the top left hand corner of the photo as she opened her mouth and ate the entire bunch whole, leaving none for her daughter Amy, to the right.  No worries, there was more where that came from.

Gluttonous Rosie

After pulling out all the nice sized carrots, I had two overflowing 5 gallon buckets and a smaller bucket absolutely full.  There are a lot more carrots that still need a week or two of growing time before they are ready.  My problem is that I don't thin out my plants.  If I did, the carrots would be of uniform size, but I have an idiosyncrasy that I can't bear to pull up a perfectly fine plant prior to harvest. That's okay.  There's no rule that says that carrots must be uniformly sized and perfect. They all eat the same.  Now that we're done harvesting, I soak them in water, scrubbing the dirt vigorously. I save all the top-soil laden water and go dump that back in the garden.

Buckets 'O Carrots

The Cosmic Purple Carrots kind of sneak up on you.  When you pull them from the ground, they are dull and dark colored. When you wash them, they ABSOLUTELY POP with gorgeous color.  You almost need sunglasses to look at them.  We've always heard that the more colorful things are the more healthy they are for you.  If there's truth to that, these must be like the fountain of youth!

The Majesty of Cosmic Purple Carrots!

The carrots sure do clean up nicely.  There's something else that needs cleaning up after a morning of carrot pulling - my hands!

Dirty Hands

Psalm 24:3-4 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

3 Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?

And who may stand in His holy place?

4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,

Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood

And has not sworn deceitfully.

I'd best get busy then.