Tag Archives: carrots

Guide to Growing Great Carrots

January 25, 2022 Jordan Charbonneau Leave a comment

Many garden articles and books out there suggest carrots as one of the easiest crops for beginners to add to their garden. However, that isn’t always the case. You’re not alone if you didn’t have great success with carrots! Thankfully, a few techniques can help make growing carrots so much easier.

Start with the Soil

A great garden always starts with the soil, but this is especially true for carrots. They need light, well-drained soil to grow full beautiful roots. Many folks in the Southeast are starting with heavy clay soils, which can hinder carrot root development.

One quick way to get great soil is to build a raised bed and fill it with finished compost. Raised beds can be the perfect solution for root crops; however, they also come with some downsides we discuss in our post, The Pros and Cons of Raised Beds.

You don’t have to build a raised bed, though, and it is possible to improve your soil no matter what you’re starting with. If you want to get a good carrot crop this year, it will take some work. Broadfork or garden fork your bed to a depth of at least 9 inches and add several inches of finished compost. If you’re working with heavy soil, it’s a good idea to add peat moss or leaf mold to provide good drainage, loose structure, and adequate moisture-holding capacity.

It’s also a good idea to have your soil tested. Carrots, like other crops, have specific growing requirements. They need a good bit of potassium and phosphorus and a pH between 6.0 and 6.8.

Soil that’s too acidic or low in potassium and other nutrients can lead to poor growth. You can correct these issues with amendments like wood ash which is rich in potassium, bone meal which is rich in phosphorus, and lime to make the soil more alkaline.

Avoid adding fresh manure or fertilizer before planting. Too much nitrogen encourages top growth but causes rough and highly branched roots.

Select an Adaptable Variety

Not all carrot varieties are created equal. If you’re dealing with less than ideal soil conditions, you’ll have better luck with a variety adapted to such conditions.

Chantenay Red Core Carrots are an heirloom variety introduced from France in the late 1800s. They’re a blocky, broad-shouldered variety with blunt tips that do well in clay and a wide range of soils.

Another heirloom that dates to 1884, Oxheart Carrots produce shorter, wider roots great for heavy clay, shallow, or rocky soils. Give them plenty of growing space! Oxhearts can weigh up to one pound.

Danvers 126 Carrots are a popular variety for a good reason. Dating to 1947, these carrots are widely adapted, productive, and heat-tolerant. They’re especially suited to growing in clay soil, and the strong tops aid harvesting.

Sow Your Carrot Seeds

Always direct sow carrots. Sow carrots 1/4 inch deep and cover them with fine, light soil. Keep the soil moist be careful not to wash away soil and seeds with a strong water source. Sprinkle wood ash along the row to prevent wireworm damage.

Carrots need consistent moisture to germinate and do best with relatively cool soil temperatures. Seeds take about five days to germinate but may take longer in cool weather.

Planting carrots in hot, dry, midsummer weather for a fall crop can be a challenging task. Thankfully, there’s a trick to make it much easier. After sowing carrot seed, cover your rows with boards or cardboard. This keeps the soil cool and moist and improves germination. Check under the boards every day and remove them as soon as you see that the carrots have germinated.

Companion Plants for Carrots

Onions, garlic, and chives can help repel carrot pests like aphids and carrot rust flies. Interplanting carrots with onions in a ratio of 1 to 2 reduces carrot fly damage by 70%. Carrots also help onions by repelling thrips which can damage onions.

Radish seeds are super quick to germinate! Sow then with carrot seed to prevent the soil from crusting.

Strong smelling marigolds deter carrot rust flies. There’s also some evidence that intercropping marigolds or calendula with carrots increases carrot roots’ sugar content.

Caring for Carrots

Once your seedlings put out true leaves, thinning them is essential. It feels like you’re destroying good plants but remember that none of your carrots will produce nice roots if they’re overcrowded! Thin to 1-2 inches apart in rows 12 inches apart.

When your seedlings reach several inches high, it’s a good idea to mulch around them. Mulching keeps the soil cool and moist. Water as needed to keep the soil moist but not soggy. Extreme fluctuations of soil moisture between dry and wet conditions may cause cracking of the roots.

Harvesting & Storing Carrots

Most carrot varieties are best when harvested when they’re no larger than 1 inch in diameter; Oxhearts are one of the obvious exceptions to this. If you’re having trouble pulling carrots, carefully use a garden fork to lift them from the soil.

For storage, cut off the tops to about 1/4 inch. Store in the refrigerator or overwinter in the garden by covering with a thick, loose mulch such as straw.

Garden Advice

Fall Harvest: Storing & Preserving Root Crops

August 10, 2021 Jordan Charbonneau Leave a comment

Whether you’re on a mission to grow as much of your own food as possible or just love cooking with homegrown vegetables, putting up root crops for winter can be an easy way to keep the winter pantry full. Beets, carrots, fall radishes, rutabagas, and turnips can last several months if stored properly.

In some cases, root crops can be stored right in the ground. In areas where the ground doesn’t freeze, crops that are maturing just as the growing season ends can be mulched in and harvested throughout the winter. However, this isn’t always possible, and there are other ways to store and keep your root vegetables fresh. To begin:

Harvest carefully.

It’s best to harvest root crops during a dry period and before any hard frosts. To avoid damaging root crops, you may need to use a garden fork to help loosen the soil.
Brush them off.

You don’t want to scrub the skin off but you should try to gently rub off as much soil as possible. It’s best not to wash them.

Any damaged or bruised roots that you find should be set aside to be eaten immediately.
Trim the tops.

Rotting tops can quickly spread rot to your root vegetables so it’s best to trim them. Using a sharp knife or shears to trim leafy tops to 1/4 to 1/2 inch about the root. Don’t trim root ends or hairs, this invites rot!
Find a place to store them.

Root vegetables should ideally be stored somewhere cold and moist. Temperatures between 33° and 40°F are preferred. If you’re fortunate enough to have one, a root cellar is ideal, but other options exist.

If you don’t have too many roots, you can use the crisper drawer of your refrigerator. Alternatively, a cool corner of a basement or garage will work. You can also use an outbuilding or storage shed in parts of the Southeast as long as you can keep out rodents and you don’t have temperatures below freezing.

If you need to store many vegetables and are interested in a DIY project, you can create a root clamp.
Place them in appropriate containers.

If you’re storing roots in your refrigerator, it’s best to use perforated plastic bags. Try to set the bags in so that the roots in each bag are in a single layer.

Roots being stored in a root cellar or other cold room can be stored in various containers, including plastic totes, waxed cardboard boxes, 5-gallon buckets, and or even an old cooler. It’s best if there’s some airflow, so avoid putting the lid on tight, and you may even want to drill some additional holes in the container.

In these containers you want to keep your roots from touching the container or each other. To do this you can layer them in damp sand, sawdust, or even old leaves.
Check on and eat your roots!

You should check all the root crops you have in storage every week or two and remove any that are beginning to soften or rot. The smallest roots generally don’t store as well and should be eaten first.

Other Preservation Methods

If you don’t want to store your root vegetables fresh or are short on space, there are many other ways to preserve them. These include fermentation, pickling, canning, and freezing. These generally take more time and effort upfront but are great for having vegetables that are quick to prepare or even ready to snack on throughout the winter.

Fermentation

Lacto-fermentation is a simple, safe, and ancient method of food preservation. All you need is clean, sliced vegetables, a mason jar and lid, a clean rock or weight, salt, and water. You simply ferment your vegetables and any desired spices in saltwater brine. You can substitute sliced root vegetables for the cucumbers in this recipe.

You can also grate them up and add them to other ferments like kimchi. The book Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz is an excellent resource for those looking to get started or expand their fermentation techniques.

Pickling

Pickling is a bit more involved than fermenting, but it’s still a safe, easy to preserve root vegetables, even for beginners. Pickled vegetables are canned in highly acidic vinegar, so they can be safely processed in a simple water bath canner.

There are many recipes available online if you’d like to browse others. Note that any labeled as “quick pickles” are designed to be refrigerated not canned.

Pressure Canning

Without the addition of vinegar, root vegetables are not acidic enough to be safely water bath canned. This means if you’d like to can plain root vegetables you’ll need to use a pressure canner. It’s not as scary as many people think!

PennState Extension has instructions for pressure canning vegetables here. Always follow the instructions that came with your canner.

Freezing

If you have room in your freezer, this can be a great way to keep root vegetables. They generally freeze well and maintain good texture and flavor.

Like other vegetables, you must blanch root veggies before freezing; otherwise, they will get mushy. You can find directions for freezing all kinds of vegetables over at the Pick Your Own website.

Recipes

DIY Natural Food Coloring from Garden Vegetables

September 19, 2017 Jordan Charbonneau Leave a comment

Many people are starting to turn away from heavily processed foods toward more wholesome natural diets. While whole grains, fruits, and vegetables are great sometimes you just need to make cupcakes with bright pink frosting. Thankfully you don’t need to turn to artificial colors to make fun, colorful food. These easy, natural, DIY food colorings can brighten up a homemade birthday cake or help you craft a colorful smoothies without chemical additives.

Beets (pink/red)

Peel and slice beets as thinly as possible and place on a single layer on a dehydrator tray. You can dry them at about 135°F or on your dehydrator’s fruit or vegetable setting. Dehydrate your beets until they’re fully dry and brittle.

Then it’s time to powder your beets. This can be done with a food processor, blender, or even a mortar and pestle. Whatever you choose you’ll want to get the powder as fine as possible so it blends well with the food you’re trying to color.

As with many vegetable based dyes the color may not be as strong as you’d expect. Beets may give you more of a pink color than darker red. You can use more beet powder however it will be a balance between adding enough for the color and adding too much powder to your recipe.

Unfortunately with beets and many vegetable dyes they can be affected by baking so you may want to stick with non-baked items like frostings.

Spinach (green)

Spinach should be rinsed and then dehydrated. For the best color it should be dehydrated as soon as possible after harvest. Place it on a single layer on a tray. It won’t take nearly as long to dry as the beets but once again you’ll want to ensure its fully dried so it can be powdered and stored without molding.

Turmeric (yellow)

As many canners and fiber artists will know turmeric can be used to create a vibrant yellow color. It’s often used in bread and butter pickle recipes giving them their yellowish appearance.

Turmeric is not a commonly homegrown spice but it can be done. It is a rhizomatous plant in the ginger family. Check out How to Grow Your Own Turmeric Indoors from Rodale’s Organic Life.

Carrots (orange or purple)

Carrots can be processed almost exactly like beets to offer an orange or purple color depending on the variety. However carrots do not need to be peeled like beets but you’ll want to wash them well before processing.

Sweet Potatoes (orange or purple)

Like carrots sweet potatoes will give you either a purple or orange food coloring depending upon the variety you choose. Unlike carrots and beets you’ll want to use cooked sweet potato puree not powder. Simply peel, chop, boil and then puree your potatoes.

Blue Butterfly Pea (blue or purple)

Like turmeric this plant isn’t super common in backyard vegetable gardens but it is easy enough to grow. It’s commonly grown in Asia and the flowers are used as an herbal tea. The tea can be used to make beverages blue or you can add a touch of lemon juice to turn the tea purple. For other recipes the dried flowers can be powdered and added as food coloring.

Red Cabbage (blue)

Surprisingly red cabbage juice makes a blue food coloring. You can use a juicer or just blend the cabbage up, place all the cabbage into some cheesecloth and squeeze as much juice out as possible (read these Tips on choosing a veggie juicer before you go on about it). For a more vibrant blue baking soda can be mixed into the juice. Start with adding just a little until you see results.

No one eats a perfectly healthy diet but by utilizing your backyard vegetable garden and spice cabinet you can have fun, colorful food while avoiding artificial colors. They may not be perfect matches for artificial food coloring but vegetable food colorings are surprisingly easy to make and use. So try your hand at homemade colorful pasta or add icing to some cookies for Halloween!

Have you ever used a natural food coloring?

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