We should have started eating our carrots by now, but as we’ve not grown any broccoli or sprouts this year we wanted to have something home-grown to serve up at Christmas, and carrots it was. So we’ve kept them in the ground, so far.
It’s getting late in the season to have not started eating them yet, and as it’s a bit risky not testing them until the big day we forked up the first few today to see how they’ve faired.
The answer, surprisingly, is very well. Carrots are drought-tolerant and don’t like getting too much water. That’s why they thrive in soil that is a mix of earth and sand, preferably with more sand than earth. If you’re growing them in barrels or pots its easy to replicate these conditions, but not so good if you’re growing them in a plot like we are: we don’t want to go digging sand into our carefully tilled soil.
After a wet summer and an even wetter autumn, we half expected them to be a mess, but if the first batch we’ve just dug up is anything to go by, they should make for a very good side dish at the end of December. In just one fork-full, we got 425 grams – almost half a kilo – of vibrant vegetables, a brilliant orange in colour, and free from worm holes.
The biggest look a lot better than last year’s crop, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed that they are representative of the four rows of carrots we’ve not yet harvested, rather than a lucky, unusual odd-one-out.
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