The carrot thinnings yesterday actually produced some carrots big enough to cook!
The colors aren't really coming through all that well in these photos. The short fat orange carrots are "Scarlet Nantes". The seeds for those were sowed a month earlier than the others. There's also "Atomic Red", which looks orange in the photos. You can tell the Atomics from the Nantes because they are thinner and longer. The red carrots are actually "Cosmic Purples". They seem to be the most quick to size up. There's one skinny little "Lunar White" on top. The whites are the slowest to size up the roots. The other pale carrots are "Amarillo Yellow" (isn't that name redundant?). And that's one stalk of green garlic that I was going to chop up and cook with the carrots, which I didn't get around to so I'm cooking them up tonight.
As I was pulling up the Nantes carrots I found that the ants are farming a bunch of aphids right at the crowns of the carrots. That's a spot that the beneficials aren't going to find so I'm going to have to do something about that mess.
How lovely! I've planted some seeds, but I'm afraid my sporadic gardening habits will do them in before they come up, but yours are inspiring!
ReplyDeletePretty! Carrots are something I have not yet tried to grow. Glad to see your success.
ReplyDeleteOooh - so yummy! We won't be thinning ours for a while since we planted a little late, but that is for sure giving me ideas :)
ReplyDeleteFabulouse, the first carrot harvest! And in April...it's just not fair, I haven't sown mine yet :-)
ReplyDeleteI have 'thinning' out my cabbage today and they tasted excellent...raw.
xoxo Tyra
Lovely baby carrots. Carrots have proved to be the most challenging vegetables in my garden. Can't make them sprout (and its not a seed problem, seeds sprouted nicely inside, they just don't in the garden)
ReplyDeleteOh that is so cool! Mine struggle to get any bigger than those - mostly because I eat them all! Love the yellow ones. Can't wait to see the full harvest. Would love to know what the white tastes like.
ReplyDeleteMichelle,
ReplyDeleteI'd be very proud to get a harvest of such beautiful carrots as those. We planted Nelson carrots and they are just about 4 inches tall if that right now.
Sheila, I think I got lucky with this batch of carrots. I was experimenting by sowing them in January and February. So I'm thrilled by my success (so far).
ReplyDeleteSweet Bay, so far carrots have been far more easy to grow than I expected! Give them a try...
Nikki, yummy indeed! Homegrown always tastes best.
Tyra, the very first tiny carrots were tasty raw. ;) It's fun to have something bigger now.
Gintoino, how frustrating :( I wonder if the snails are getting them as soon as they sprout?
Prue, it is hard to stop pulling them when they look so good. I think it's going to take a while before I get some white ones big enough to actually taste.
Randy, considering that I grew carrots for the very first time last fall, I am exceedingly proud! I hope I'm not just having beginners luck as well.
I'll be curious what you do about ants. I just discovered a trail up the potted lemon tree, so out comes the gooey stuff, but I don't really want to smear the whole bottom of the put.
ReplyDeleteRegardless, very impressive harvest -- in April!
Lots more about the carrot colours in the World Carrot Museum - more people should grow purple, white and black varieties - great in a salad.
ReplyDeleteCarrots are dead easy to grow, just follow the packet instructions, and common sense.
John, I did mention the Carrot Museum in a post last fall. Lot's of interesting carrot info there! And I would grow black carrots if I could get some seeds...
ReplyDeleteA charming harvest!
ReplyDeleteI've never seen a carrot that's so purplish and yellow! The ones we get here is only the orange ones. I so wanna grow the purplish ones after seeing them at yours and Prue's.
ReplyDeleteYou might want to try the Borax + Water + Sugar bait for the ants.
Chandramouli, I hope you can find seeds for the purple and yellow carrots, they are fun to grow. I've kept boric acid sugar water ant bait around the garden most of the year and it helps a bit, but there are sooo many ants that it's impossible to control them in any significant way.
ReplyDeleteI read that the aphids generally don't do much harm to the carrot roots so for the moment I'm just using water to dislodge them every few days.
Gorgeous carrots! I am trying to grow them once again this year. Last fall was a flop due to slugs and my insanely rocky soil. Hopefully I will have more luck this spring as there is nothing better than pulling up some fresh carrots for lunch or dinner!
ReplyDeleteHi again Michelle, I found it very interesting what you said in your comment about Nero di Toscana. Perhaps I can't prepare it right. I would be very please if you shared some ideas about how to cook/serve it.
ReplyDeletexoxo Tyra
Hi Tyra, I suspect that our differences in opinion about the flavor of Nero di Toscana comes down to personal taste. But I will write a post about a couple of my favorite ways to prepare it.
ReplyDeleteI've been waiting for some carrots in my garden to go to seed, but it took too long and today I yanked 'em. I thought they were supposed to go to seed really fast with warm weather. Not!
ReplyDeleteI once weeded a garden in San Francisco where carrots had naturalized. They were literally everywhere! I want that.
Chuck, maybe it didn't get hot enough up your way or you have bolt resistant carrots. I noticed a few days ago that a number of my carrots were starting to bolt, especially the Atomic Reds and Cosmic Purples. A few of the white ones are starting to go now too. None of the Scarlet Nantes have gone yet.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever transplanted carrot starts? The Botanical Garden is selling carrot starts in 4" pots this year.
ReplyDeleteI'm having trouble with a nighttime visitor lately (a cat, probably) who defeats all my attempts to keep him out.
Chuck, my understanding is that carrots need to be seeded in place since they send down a long taproot right off. Anything that gets in the way, such as the bottom of a pot, will result in a stubby or malformed carrot.
ReplyDeleteI suppose your nighttime visitor could be a skunk, raccoon or opossum as well.