Now THAT'S a Carrot!

I went out to the garden to grab a couple of carrots for a salad I was making

I grabbed what I thought was a bunch of carrot tops and pulled

and out popped this monster.

After making sure that it didn't taste weird (it didn't)

I used about a third in my salad and chopped the rest up for horse treats.

I promise I grew this with nothing but horse poop-

no nuclear radiation involved.

Carrots

 

 One of our best crops this year

was carrots.

Because of our rocky soil (as evidenced in the above photo)

we never tried carrots after our first attempt

produced very small and extremely deformed carrots.

But when the 8 year old showed an interest in growing some

(I thought he might eat them, silly me, he just wanted them for his rabbit)

I figured what the heck.

The results were so good

we have plans to plant more next year.

 I used 2 different ways to can them but they both start with washing the carrots

  

 Peeling the carrots.

  

and cut the carrots.

 

To can regular carrots

(That is to say just carrots and water no fancy recipe)

boil a pot of water.

Add cut and washed carrots to the water.

Bring back to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes.

Fill your jars with the carrots leaving 1" of headspace.

Use the water the carrots were cooked in to fill the jars.

Make sure you have that 1" of headspace.

You can add salt now- 1tsp for quarts 1/2 tsp pints.

I choose not to use salt.

Remove bubbles, wipe the rim

and process at 10 pounds of pressure for 25 min for pints, 30 for quarts. 

 I also canned some glazed carrots.

You will need:

 

6 1/2 -7 lbs of carrots
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups water
1 cup orange juice

Cut and wash your carrots per usual.

Combine brown sugar, water and orange juice in a pot. 

Cook over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. 

Keep syrup hot and pack carrots tightly into hot jars, leaving 1" headspace. 

Ladle hot syrup over carrots
(make sure you  leave 1" headspace). 

Remove air bubbles and wipe rims. 

Add hot lids and rings. 

Process pints and quarts for 30 minutes at 10 lbs of pressure for weighted gauge 
and 11lbs for dial gauge.

Makes 6 pints or 3 quarts.

I'm looking forward to eating some carrots this winter!

Home Grown Carrots

Nothing tastes better than carrots straight from the ground.

Just ask Abby.

Last Haul

We finally found time to pay attention to our struggling garden.

This year, it just doesn't seem to be doing very well at all.

Last year we had produce all over the place- 

so much I couldn't keep up with preserving it all.

Not this year.

I blame the late spring start,

the cooler than normal temps

and lack of fertilization.

So our next step is to fertilize the heck out of the garden.

While we were hacking down the jungle growth weeding

I came across this fat Eastern American Toad

hiding in the soil beneath what was supposed to be my cabbage plants.

(they were plants, they just never gave me cabbage)

He was pretty fat.

Big E yelled at me to stop playing with the toad and start 

wielding my machete helping him weed.

The squash bugs are one of the few things that are growing well.

The ground was moving with them. 

So we ripped out most of the squash and zucchini and pumpkins

and I sprayed the area with Neem oil hoping to kill them off.

 

This probably the last large haul from the garden this year.

Carrots and beets did well.

I'll be canning those this week.

The tomatoes are doing ok,

hopefully I'll continue to get some so I have enough for pasta sauce.

Busy Sunday

It was a busy weekend in general.

Wedding items were worked on

(including a nearly completed wagon),

there was a birthday party,

a ball game

and finally....

A garden started.

The weather in our area has been a little crazy this spring.

Big E finally got the garden tilled for me for Mother's Day

and yesterday we managed to get some seed in the ground.

Though a little late for some stuff, we planted it anyway to see what happens

(really, temps were in the upper 30's this morning so weather-wise, it isn't that late).

We have a giant row of peas planted since my son likes to eat them off the vine,

spinach, kale, 2 types of cabbage, beets and carrots.

We planned out the rest of the plantings of cukes, tomatoes, pole beans, squash, melons, pumpkins and corn. 

What can I say, we're ambitious.

Now I just have to keep these cluckers out of the garden

since they think it's their very own Olympic sized dust bath. 

And they like kale.

Bring on Fall

I managed to get all those new falls seeds planted this week.

(Not all by myself- Big E manned the tiller and 

pulled some weeds and 

took care of wedding photographer details. 

I know, he's awesome)

Just in time for some steady rain rain today.

Hoping to can some beets and sauerkraut later this fall.

New Fall Seeds

I received my latest order of seeds yesterday and can't wait to get them in the ground. Because I've managed to use my canner and not blow anyone up, I've become adventurous and plan on attempting to make my own sauerkraut. So I have 2 varieties of cabbage to try. I also have Autumn King carrots, Dwarf Curled Scotch Kale, Siberian Dwarf Kale and a beet blend. All these were ordered through Annie's Heirloom Seeds. I wasn't too impressed with the germination of the kale and cabbage seeds I got from Seed Savers so I'm giving this new company a try. Now to talk Big E into building a couple of poly tunnels...