Sometime during the month of May, my daughter Patience and I planted carrots. We did not plant many, so we thought, just a starter pack of six seedlings purchased from a seller of organic plants at the San Francisco Farmers' Market. The variety, we were told, was a type of mini carrot whose name has since escaped my failing brain.
Yesterday, I noticed the little orange carrot tops had poked out from beneath the damp earth.
Photo: Chronica Domus
Aha, I thought, it must be time to dig up our crop. But wait... just... a... minute! Exactly how many carrot tops was I staring at? Had they seemingly multiplied during their growth spurt? We had, after all, only planted six little starter plants.
Our six pack of carrots in among the chives and sweet pea stakes
Photo: Chronica Domus
Curious to reveal what might be hiding beneath, Patience handed me the trowel. When the soil had loosened, I gently tugged at the carrot tops and lo and behold out came ...
Heave-ho, and out you come!
Photo: Chronica Domus
Photo: Chronica Domus
A trug full of carrots!
Photo: Chronica Domus
Patience and I were flabbergasted at the sight of our peculiar carrot crop. How on earth had six little seedlings turned into so many carrots, and how had they become so contorted as to look, well.... deformed? Or, as my daughter succinctly put it "They look like broken phalanges". Hmmm... quite!
Washed and trimmed our ugly duckling carrots were ready for eating
Photo: Chronica Domus
Sharing a jolly good chuckle over our horticultural endeavors, we both agreed that although our crop would not be winning any blue ribbons for their looks, they might just eek one out for their sublime taste. Crisp and sweet, these were certainly winners in our book.
My Dear CD,
ReplyDeleteAfter seeing the Frankenstein Trees and now this leper colony of carrots, I suggest you and Patience don space suits when troweling in the back yard. That soil might fetch a pretty penny as black market feedstock for Iranian centrifuges.
Hello GSL,
DeleteOh, I must share your very amusing description of our carrot crop with my daughter. She'll likely have no clue what a leper colony is but once I've explained all, she'll say something like "oh, that's cool!".
Stay tuned as I have an update on the Frankentrees in a future posting here on CD.
How satisfying to grow your own carrots! I am sure they are quite tasty.
ReplyDeleteOh, yes, slf, tasty they certainly are! My daughter can't stop snacking on them.
DeleteWe shall try the growing experiment again next season in hopes for slightly more conventional looking carrots.
I don't know, I think they could win a blue ribbon for looks! Especially in that attractive trug basket. Pretty amazing, and impressive, I haven't had any luck growing carrots so I am giving you and your daughter big points for your green thumbs. Happy gardening to you both XO
ReplyDeleteHello DaniBP,
DeleteHow kind of you to award our carrot crop a blue ribbon and, so pleased you like the garden trug. I received it as a present from a beloved cousin in England. It's been in constant use since I received it almost twenty years ago, and I think of her each time I fill it with our home-grown fruit and veg.
Hello CD, I don't know about carrots, but it seems that with many types of fruit, the more misshapen the fruit the better and more complex the taste. Large, perfect examples tend to be insipid. I'll take your homegrown carrots any day--their homegrown looks are a bonus.
ReplyDelete--Jim
Hello Jim,
DeleteYou make a perfectly valid point when you state that large fruits and vegetables, which here in the United States is all that is available at most supermarkets, lack flavor. This is why I prefer to do my weekly produce shopping at the local farmers' markets or try to grow my own.
As long as they tasted good it's good in my book. What a fun project with your daughter.
ReplyDeletexo,
Karen
Hello Karen,
DeleteWell, I can certainly attest to their fresh and delicious flavor, as we've been munching on our carrots like mad rabbits.
The experiment with the six-pack of seedlings has been a fun one that I'm sure will be repeated only this time, I should perhaps not take it for granted that I'm only planting six carrots and make provision for their growth.
Slightly odd looking, indeed! But I'll bet they were tasty. Did you catch any episodes of The Great British Smallholder on tv? They were all growing veggies in their small holding and having a competition (similar to at a village fete). The lengths they went to to grow perfect veg was eye opening. I seem to remember carrots were grown in very sandy soil to make sure they sent out only one root and it went straight down.
ReplyDeleteI think your 6 pack of seedlings included a few bonus ones!
Hello Heidi,
DeleteI usually start my plants from seed but in this case I couldn't resist this particular seller's wares and opted to bite the bullet for my daughter's sake who suggested we plant carrots. Next time I'm going to double-check that each of the seedlings are indeed single. I think that was the issue with our bizarrely shaped carrots - they were too cramped. They did taste good though!
I will look about the internet to see if I'm able to view the show you reference. Sounds like something I'd enjoy watching, thank you.
I was going to mention the same thing Heidi just said!! Yes I saw that show too and they were saying that any pebbles will make the carrots move out of the way and go around - and many of the planters not only used sandy soil but some used pipes to guide the carrots to go straight up and down too! and yes they also said you had to preen after a few weeks after planting one out of 3 to give them space. You really need to see the last season of the allotment challenge - it was so useful and gave tips they wouldn't really bother in other shows.
DeleteNow I must track down that show to view as you both recommend it, thank you. However, I doubt I'm going to the extreme of placing pipes in the soil, but I do understand the concept. I'll be thinning seedlings and checking for pebbles however. And there I was priding myself on how loamy my soil was - hmmm!
DeleteOh, those precious little cherubs!! You have quite the way with the exotic plant, I see---all golden and rosy and still curled from their garden sleep.
ReplyDeleteHow I wish for those for next weekend!! I'd be serving the little beauties as Baby Mandrakes, for we're to have the long-awaited, much-postponed Harry Potter party for a dear GrandDaughter, who has just turned twelve. Many delays with their schedule and ours, plus the A/C upstairs is STILL misbehaving itself, and so we hope for a lovely day to have the party on the lawn.
We do all sorts of cutesy food for the Grands' party themes---we've got Dragon Scales, Fruit Wands, Chocolate Frogs, String-Cheese Brooms, as well as the Mandrakes---not nearly so charming as your own hatching, but a lovely long thin type of carrot which we just discovered this Spring.
It's lovely to be back---we were away for the Fourth, with other GRANDS, then this past weekend was a trip to Birmingham to visit my own dear cousin, last seen at Daddy's funeral in '04. What a fabulous reunion, and what a sublime hostess. I've not been so pampered in I can't think when, and it was like a ballet, sitting at their kitchen table and watching the two of them as they moved about their cooking---marvelous meals, wonderful company and conversation for two days non-stop, and blissful slumber in a big brass bed in the treetops. No kidding---it was more than fifty feet down into the shady forest of their back lawn.
I can just taste those tiny curls of carrot---what a charming, tasty harvest! Hope you're staying cool way out there!
r
Oh yes, I see it now, baby mandrakes, how very perceptive of you racheld!
ReplyDeleteYour Harry Potter party is sure to be a hit with the imagination you inject into it, and your weekend away being pampered by a beloved cousin sounded wonderful from your description.
Have no fear, yes we are keeping cool because summer in the San Francisco Bay Area is predictably foggy and cool. I need some heat.
I think your carrots look marvelously home grown and delicious. The carrots from our CSA have the same knobby appeal. Regardless of the shape, they are tender, sweet and tasty. At the very least, they are an interesting conversation topic at the table. Did you plant another crop of potatoes this year?
ReplyDeleteBest, KL Gaylin
Hello KL Gaylin,
DeleteWell, as I wrote, our carrots will not be winning beauty contests but just as the carrots from your CSA are sweet and tasty, so are ours, which is truly why we enjoyed them so much. My daughter told me she absolutely detests those little bagged carrots which are insipid and smell of chemicals. Who can blame her?
I've given the soil a rest this year and did not plant potatoes although I must say, there are plenty of volunteers coming up. I am curious to see if they yield any potatoes at all.
Well done. Carrots are impossible to grow so kudos to you both!
ReplyDeleteThank you Jen. Next time I will make sure to thin the plants and hope they grow in a more conventional shape.
Delete