Carrots

Carrots come in many different colors and shapes! I grew some that were purple outside and orange inside--really pretty! Besides that, they are good for you in different ways.

Carrots need really good soil, without a lot of organic chunks in it. Sandy loam is the best, but you can work the soil to make it more fine-grained so the carrots can grow straight and long. If there are rocks and organic chunks in the soil, the carrots will fork and twist, making it harder to peel and eat.

There are carrots that look like billiard balls, some that are tiny (like in the markets), some that are long and slender, some that are half-long and fatter, and some that are long and thick. The ball carrots would be good for tough soils because they don't penetrate the soil very deep.

Carrots can be planted now, and generally, carrots are planted 1/16th of an inch deep, and spaced10 inches apart in all directions (or as close as 6 inches if your soil is really fertile). It can take up to 14 days to germinate, and 90-100 days to mature. Carrots tolerate partial shade, and are a heavy feeder (they remove a lot of nutrients from the soil).

This is a good time to use the planting squares (I posted about them a few days ago) because the seeds are so small. Make sure to keep the seeds moist until they sprout, and then water normally. Over the winter carrots will keep well in the ground or in the refrigerator. If the ground freezes where you live, you can put a bale of straw on top of the carrot patch to keep the soil from freezing, and then you can up-end the bale to pull carrots when you want to have them--just be sure to mark where the carrot patch is before the snow arrives!

[Picture from: Mother Earth News]

Tea Leaves vs. Maggots

I thought this garden tip was a good one, and we can use it now in the valley as we plant radishes and turnips. I suppose it would work on carrots, too!

"I've been using this simple remedy for a long time, and it seems to rid my radishes and turnips of maggots.

I rip open used tea bags and place the spent leaves in a shallow container until they're dry. (I've found placing the container on the top of the refrigerator dries out the leaves quickly.) I store the leaves in a sealed container until ready to use.

In the spring, I sprinkle a layer of dried leaves in the turnip and radish rows after planting seeds. I've had 95% success with this method."--Clair Reffner

[From: National Gardening Magazine, June 1990, pg. 52]

Carrots

This is a picture of one of my carrots that is going to seed. It is of the umbel (from the word "umbrella") family, as you can see. This family includes cumin, parsley, coriander or cilantro, dill, caraway, fennel, parsnip, celery, Queen Anne's Lace, and dill--all having the same type of flowers. Hemlock is also of this family, but it's not intentionally eaten!

Purple Carrots

I picked a few of my carrots and then saw that there was an article about purple carrots in the newspaper. These carrots taste just like regular carrots, although they are purple on the outside. I knew these carrots were considered heirloom, I just didn't realize how long their history is!

The Fresno Bee, June 13, 2009: "Valley's Purple Carrots Stand to Benefit From Laws" (edited)

The article said that "the ancient purple carrot is returning to its roots, this time to dye processed foods rather than the robes of Afghan royals." Foods that have synthetic dyes that are already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, will soon be required to have a warning label if they are imported by the European Union. Various fruits and vegetables are being tested for their dye potential, with the purple carrot becoming an important option.

One of the best sources for purple carrots is from the Grimmway Farms in Kern County, where they grow vegetables organically for the gourmet market. They are also sending juice for experiments at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.

Purple carrots grew thousands of years before orange carrots came about, and "are especially high in the antioxidant anthocyanin, a free-radical-fighting plant pigment that also colors blueberries and red wine grapes."

Researchers at the Southampton University in England have found a connection between some synthetic dyes and hyperactivity in children. In Europe the warning label will read: "may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children."

California will have the opportunity to be a major supplier of purple carrots, opening a new market that will benefit the Central Valley. Who knew?!

Carrots and Beans

I picked these carrots this morning and I will snack on them later today. They were planted a couple of months ago, but are still chugging along. As you can see, they are small. These are some that I thinned, so the others could grow larger. I planted the Orange Ball Carrots in a bag of topsoil. Their roots aren't very long so they can grow just fine in the bag. [See post 5/6/09]. The other carrots are my Cosmic Purple Carrots. I planted them in a self-watering grow box. They are growing nicely and I will keep thinning/harvesting as I go along.


I am making progress in my raised bed garden. Saturday evening I planted Contender Bush Beans and Bountiful Esther Dry Beans along the front of my garden. I then laid down thick pieces of wet newspaper and on top of that a flake of straw. Lastly, I put some unfinished compost that I have over the planting of beans, down the center of the straw. That will keep the beans moist and keep their paths to the sun easy to get through. You can see a plant right in the middle of the bean row---it's a Bright Lights Swiss Chard that I planted in the early spring that never came up, well at least not until now. I will leave it there and add it to the menu when it gets big enough!

I am working on this garden bed piece-by-piece until it gets done; and I will use the newspaper and straw method over the whole bed. It is difficult for me to cover the weeds now, because the praying mantis' have hatched. They are about 1/3" long and tend to like the crabgrass, where they feel protected and can find a good bug meal! I will pull out the grass and leave it in a pile near the garden for a few days, that way the spiders and mantis' can find a new home, instead of being covered up with no way out. Later I will put the weeds under wet newspaper in my new raised garden bed. With so much to do to tidy up the yard, I will have to divide my time over several projects---but it will get done!