Every Year The Carrot Crop Has Gotten Better and Better...

This year will prove to be the exception.  The crop was miserable.  Let me correct that - the weather was miserable and that translated into a poor harvest.  We had lower than normal temperatures that stayed below freezing for days and days.  Once it finally warmed up a little, the rains started.  And they didn't stop!  The ground has been muddy and saturated for weeks with no drying in sight.

I remembered the carrots and decided I would go and dig them up, if there were any left.  The first thing I noticed was there was no carrot greens.  Usually the carrot tops are lush and healthy and green.  The extended time that we were well under freezing temperatures killed off all of the greens.  That is okay, though.  The ground will preserve the carrots - if the ground is not wet and muddy.

Russ and Benjamin and I were joined by a neighbor kid and we began digging.  A carrot crop that looked so promising two months ago, sure disappointed.

Digging up the carrot rows

The carrots that were not rotten in the ground were small and stunted.  I would assume that without any carrot tops left, their growing days are over.  We just dug them all up, no matter how small.  Maybe I'll call them "fingerling carrots."

I threw them in a 5 gallon bucket filled with rainwater to wash them off.  Swirling the water around and swishing the carrots around in the bucket removes all the mud from the carrot roots.  I'll pour the water back in the garden as I don't want to remove any topsoil at all from the garden. 

I planted Danvers Carrots (normal orange), Cosmic Purple carrots, and Atomic Red carrots.  They all taste the same to me, but the colors are interesting.  The colors fade once cooked, but they look nice raw.

And this was it!  The entire 2017 carrot crop.  Sad isn't it?  I guess it could have been worse.  We could have harvested none.

We don't let crop failure get us down.  We will keep trying.  We will plant them again next year.  Sometimes the weather doesn't cooperate, but most of the time it does.  Come to think of it, I may even plant some this spring. 

I think we still have a couple of quarts of cut up carrots in the freezer from last year's crop.  Next year's crop will be better.

"Never let success go to your head.  Never let failure go to your heart."  - Anonymous