I got some work to do in my carrot game. I’ve learned they really do their best when they are in a row without other competition. It’s difficult to weed around carrots without pulling the carrots themselves out of the ground.

I believe I planted six different varieties. There’s something about having the rainbow of root vegetables at your disposal that really brings a smile to my face.

Lila Lu sang from baker creek (spoiler: I get most my seeds from baker creek)

https://www.rareseeds.com/carrot-lila-lu-sang

They are gorgeous. Last year I grew Gniff carrots. I would be lying if I didn’t mention those have more of maybe a turnip flavor? Much earthier and lacking in sweetness, even after a frost.

I have yet to master the quick turn around of crops. I know I should’ve had carrots much sooner and I definitely know I shouldn’t be harvesting broccoli now that I planted this spring. But I suppose it’s just a testament to let people know I don’t know it all and am still learning. Sometimes I think customers expect me to crack open my brain like an encyclopedia, and sometimes I can, depending on the topic. But it really is a stinky feeling when I say “I don’t know” and then they give me this look like I should take my gardening gloves off and go sit in the corner. 😂

There is ALOT to gardening! And SO many different techniques and styles and rabbit trails to run down with it! Not to mention, every spring having to remember what you did RIGHT the year before. And then hope that the weather is similar enough that the same tactics work out.

I think the most difficult part with carrots is getting them to germinate. I used to prep the soil, get it all fluffy and nice, then sprinkle the seeds, ever so lightly cover with soil, and might even gently press down on them, water them in and then….cover them with clear plastic. I stopped doing this when I learned about solarizing weeds. I felt like maybe I was going to fry all my carrot seeds and not see a single carrot, but…to be honest, I might try that again! It also makes it so the damn birds don’t come and gobble up all your seeds before they have a chance to germinate!

Keeping them moist tends to be an issue that is remediated when using that technique as well. Holds in the moisture. It may just be me needing to watch some videos and learn more specifically on carrots. We have a whole world of gardeners out there, and even though not everything is going to work well for everyone, sharing of knowledge is a pretty fantastic thing.

I still have my carrots in the ground. I go when I’m starting to get low at the house, and dig more. Enough for a one gallon ziploc, then I cut off their tops (which can make a good pesto, but if I’m not feeling that, my chickens also love them) and their stringy ends and wash them well. Then stick them in a gallon ziploc with some water.

I haven’t learned why store carrots don’t get flimsy. I don’t know if I really want to know the answer. I also had an organic carrot from the store that has sprouted and the “greens” were orange…

I believe even in organic farming, natural dyes probably aren’t unheard of. I haven’t really looked into it. What I do know, is mine aren’t dyed. And they taste delicious. So I’m going to go ahead and call that a win.

I did overseed this spring. I always get a little scared that my germination is going to be crap, and this year I had one big long row to fill and a whole lot of carrot seed to plant. I do have many carrots, and next year I will remember to either transplant or cull the volunteer spoon tomatoes. (I didn’t really know what they were until they turned into hedges and produced tiiiiiiny little tomatoes.)

I got all sorts of volunteers. Volunteer being: a fruit such as a tomato that got left out in the garden, and then decided to plant itself and grow a new tomato plant the next year. It’s beautiful magic, although sometimes highly inconvenient.

Ground cherries are delicious, but also notorious for being not only volunteers, but full on “this is now a ground cherry row…forever!” Same goes for tomatillos. Which sucks because I haven’t found a recipe for tomatillos that we really like.

If you haven’t grown ground cherries, I highly recommend it! They are delicious and highly productive. Just take a hint of caution when deciding where to plant them.

They are small and round, like a cherry tomato, but they are covered in a husk, no big deal, very easy to take off and sometimes handy to protect the fruit inside. (Fruit? They do taste like fruit. Our family goes down rabbit holes of what is a “fruit” vs “vegetable” they are delicious, I do know that!)

The inside tastes a bit like cantaloupe meets pineapple, meets…other flavors I can’t describe. Delicious. Try them!

This is not my photo. It belongs to baker creek. But this does give you a good idea of the size and structure. You want to wait until they have fallen off the plant and the husks have turned the color that is in the picture (they start green) if the inside is still green, it is not very palatable in my opinion.

Another photo so you can see the volunteer spoon tomatoes that totally blocked out part of my carrots row. In my opinion, they are difficult to harvest and not really my favorite. But they sure are cute!

Looking at the photo, this isn’t even them at their largest. The spoon tomatoes are inbetween the sunflowers and the corn.

Gotta jet! Happy gardening!