More on baby carrots... (EDIT)

It's odd isn't it, the things that people are interested in? I mean, I can spend an hour typing all my thoughts out about the algebra of happiness into something that I'm really proud of, and generally speaking people could give less than a darn. But write about cat deterrents and *BANG*, most popular post of my career!?

That being the case, I'm not at all surprised at the interest in my carrots and I'm more than happy to share the story of my happy accident.

A couple of years ago I first tried to get some late season crops going. I figured the best thing to try would be carrots since 1. we like them and 2. they are pretty idiot proof. (I thought at the time but have since proven my self sadly incorrect!) I sowed them in late August or early September and they grew pretty well to begin with but then slowed and stopped completely in the fall. Since I was doing this as a bit of an experiment I didn't do anything to the carrots. No blanket, no plastic, no mulches... Just carrots and snow!

Imagine my surprise the next spring when I was clearing out the beds and prepping for planting and found the sweet tender little beauties in the ground. It was the result that I had looked forward to for sure.

I hoped to get more of them going last winter for this spring but it just didn't happen. I'm glad to have some though. They've garnered a following at work. I don't cook them up because for one, I really don't have a lot of say in the menu around here, but also because they're so good all by themselves. If I were to cook them though I think a hot saute with a little butter just until they're soft (1-2 minutes) should do them very well.

If your wanting to try this out. Plan your succession plantings of carrots leading into the fall just as you normally would. Then, over the winter you can either just let them sit until spring or dip into your *stash* over the cold winter. Either way, I wish you the best of luck!
P~

EDIT: The question was asked about the greens of the carrots. I cut them off when I washed them for the most part, but none of the tops were longer than maybe...6 inches and had a lot of frost damage to them. These were also really skinny because I left them planted very densly as I knew they were for baby carrots and I didn't care about the size. (good luck Sandy, let me know if you have more questions.)