Carrots

 

Carrots are easy to plant, easy to care for, and easy to harvest. They’re good and good for you and they come endorsed by Bugs Bunny. All you need is a raised bed – and this is crucial. If you give these guys really soft growth medium, they get HUGE. I plant both early carrots for summer eating and long term storage carrots for fall. I mark out the rows in the raised bed along the drip lines so they get lots of water.

Carrot seeds are tiny, or you can get them pelleted, but I don’t take the time to drop seeds one by one. I sort of dribble them along the row and lightly cover with soil. When they start to come up, I thin a couple of times. The first thinning is to get out any that are too crowded. Do this with scissors so you don’t damage the other tiny carrots. The next thinning is to get the baby carrots. So I pick every other one or so – again, you don’t want them to crowd each other.

Then I just pick and thin throughout the summer – if there are still some that are crowded, I take those for eating or salad. My grandchildren love to do this – the eating part. The kids are a little too enthusiastic when it comes to thinning, but we let them eat all they want from the picked carrots.

Carrots can be left in the ground till just before a hard freeze. They don’t mind mild frosts. When you are ready, get a small shovel. If your growth medium is good, you shouldn’t need to dig them out – just pull steadily on the carrot top and the carrot will pull right out. If you planted in dirt, you may need to loosen the soil a bit with the shovel before you pull the carrot.

We top the carrots – just pull, not cut, off the tops. The tops go in the compost. We put the carrots in a bucket and wash them outside for the first washing.

Then I wash them twice in the kitchen sink.

I store them in the bottom drawer of my refrigerator in open plastic bags. I don’t seal the bags because the carrots seem to do better this way. If I just store them loose in the drawer, they seem to dry out or get wrinkly soon.

We don’t use carrots as much as onions, for example, or green beans. I plant carrots for three main reasons – to eat baby carrots in the summer or add to salads, to put in stew or pot roasts in the fall, or to make this cake. This is Walt’s absolute favorite cake. We’ve all tweaked it over the years and this is the current form.

CARROT CAKE

1 c. white flour     

1 c. whole wheat flour        

½ c. sugar       

½ c. packed brown sugar

½ c. flax seed

½ c. oats         

2 tsp. baking soda       

2 tsp. cinnamon         

1 tsp. salt        

½ c. apple butter or apple sauce, or carrot puree (boil some carrots, drain, and puree in a blender)

1 tbs. vanilla    

½ c. oil

3 eggs

3 c. shredded carrots

1 small can drained crushed pineapple (optional for some, not for Walt)

Raisins – about 1 c.

Pecans – about 1 c. chopped

Combine flour and next 8 ingredients. Make a well. Combine apple butter or carrot puree, oil, vanilla and eggs. Stir with a whisk. Stir apple butter mixture with dry ingredients.

Stir just till moist. Fold in carrots, pineapple, raisins and nuts if desired.

 Pour into 2 - 8”cake pans coated with cooking spray and dusted with flour (bake 30 minutes). Or a 9x13”pan (bake 35 minutes). Or 2 dozen muffins, either sprayed with cooking spray or lined with muffin papers. If you make the muffins, you can sprinkle on Streusel Topping (below, then bake 20 minutes).

Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans. Cool completely.

Frost the cakes with:

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

½ c. (4 oz) cream cheese         

¼ c. butter         

1 tsp. grated lemon rind
 1 tsp. vanilla
3 ½ c. powdered sugar

Beat cheese, butter, lemon rind, and vanilla till smooth. Gradually add sugar, beating just till blended.

Or for the muffins, sprinkle on Streusel Topping before baking:

1/4 cup + 1 tbsp all purpose flour

2 tbsp oat bran or oats

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp sugar

Pinch salt

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1/2 tsp cinnamon

After these muffins are baked, you can pipe or drizzle a small amount of glaze onto each muffin made with some powdered sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and yogurt. I like to make the muffins because then I can freeze them and Walt can have a piece of carrot cake whenever he wants. ‘Til they’re gone.

I add carrots to stew and our Sunday pot roast, but that’s a whole ‘nother blog.

This is a nice holiday side dish.

CIDER GLAZED CARROTS

9 c. (3") julienne cut carrots (about 2 1/2 lbs)      

1/4 c. packed brown sugar       

2 tbs. butter              

2 tbs. cider vinegar         

1/2 tsp. dry mustard

½ tsp. paprika

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. celery seed

1 tbs. chopped parsley

Place carrots in pan, cover with water, bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 1 minute. Combine brown sugar and rest of ingredients except parsley in large skillet. Cook till butter melts and all boils. Reduce heat to medium, add carrots. Cook 3 minutes till carrots are glazed, stirring constantly. Sprinkle with parsley. 12 servings.

There are all sorts of health benefits to carrots and many, many varieties to plant – from white to yellow to deep orange to red to purple, and early carrots, sweet carrots, storage carrots, and many variations within those kinds. So try some different ones and find out how delicious a baby carrot just pulled from your garden can be.