Storing Carrots

​I have a love-hate relationship with my garden. The love comes when I can walk out the back door and grab fresh food for dinner. The hate part comes when all the garden produce seems to come on at once and I need to do something with all the food. It is not that I don’t enjoy all that food, it is just that preserving the food or getting it ready for long-term storage takes time.

​A few weeks ago when I went out the back door I could see it was time to harvest the carrots.

​I must admit I’m not a big fan of carrots –especially the bagged baby carrots from the grocery store. I think they are pretty blah without any flavor. However, I do like to grow a few carrots in the garden for snacking and to use in soups, salads, and side dishes throughout the year. And home-grown carrots have great flavor.

​I pulled out the shovel and started digging. 

This is what happens when you don’t thin the row (which I’m not diligent at doing). Cool, intertwined, funky shaped carrots. ​

​And if you don’t get out to harvest in time, this is what happens. Big cracks. Luckily, I only had a couple of those. They still taste good, but certainly fall in the “ugly vegetable” category. 

After digging, I cut the tops off and put the tops back into the garden to compost. I then tossed the carrots onto the lawn to wash the dirt off. The garden hose makes fast work of cleaning and the water is used on the lawn instead of wasted down a drain. I don’t get all the dirt off, but do get most of it. These are the carrots before washing.

I find carrots keep longer if put them in a slightly open plastic bag in the fridge. But who has room for all those carrots in the fridge. 

Luckily, I have a cold storage room in my basement, so most of the carrots will end up there. I put them into basket (I do the same with my potatoes and onions, but no bags). The bags seem to help in keeping the carrots crisp. I make sure the bag has some openings and not fully sealed. My carrots keep for about year.

​And now that the work of storage is done – I’m back to the love my garden stage. Come winter I can just walk down the stairs to the basement and grab some carrots to throw into some hearty soup. And that is worth loving.