The Late Great Carrot Harvest

Ecclesiastes 11:4 King James Version (KJV)

4 He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.

How are you doing on your To Do List?  Getting things done is often a struggle.  Oh, we all get things done, but it's as they say, "the devil is in the details."  Many times numerous things need to get done - simultaneously.  You feel stretched in all directions!

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In those times, it is always a good idea to prioritize.  Sometimes, however, everything feels like it is priority #1.  That's the way it's been with the garden this year.  Both in getting the spring garden in and harvesting the fall/winter garden.  Those are really not chores or dreaded things.  They are things I look forward to.  Unfortunately, it has worked out (or not worked out) that the days that I have an open schedule to garden, I have to work late, or I get stuck in traffic, or it rains.

I have one row of carrots to harvest and this weekend was the time that they must be dug!  Russ and Benjamin came out and helped me.  They've always liked harvesting root crops.  Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Peanuts, Carrots, etc.  It's something about discovering treasure under the soil that is exciting.

The first two rows were Cosmic Purple Carrots and Atomic Red Carrots.  This last row was Berlicum and Danvers Carrots - normal orange ones.  We began digging and almost immediately discovered some bad news!  Oh, it could have been worse, but it was a little discouraging.  As we began pulling the big, beautiful carrots out of the ground, only about 3/4's of them came up.  The rest was rotten!

The cows were happy to oblige in helping us ensure the over-ripe carrots did not go to waste.  Those girls ate so many carrots, we kind of figured the milk would be orange in the morning.

In the final analysis, we lost at least half of the row of carrots.  Not good.  But it could have been worse.  We collected perhaps 2/3's of a five gallon bucket of carrots that weren't rotten.

After washing them off, we found maybe another six carrots that were bad, but the rest we were able to save.

We are still blessed to have a bunch of carrots to eat fresh and to blanch and freeze for later.  Next year, we'll plan better, so as not to lose so many!

I'm in a hurry to get things done

Oh, I rush and rush until life's no fun

All I really got to do is live and die

But I'm in a hurry and don't know why

-Alabama