Carrots

[AzLoneRider]

We are growing just a few carrots, during the summer they didn't grow well, too hot I imagine. During the fall and winter they have taken off. The proble is when we harvest a carrot within an hour it wilts. We want to be able to grow and harvest carrots and not have to eat them immediately. Can anyone give me some ideas on why they wilted and how to keep them from wilting once we havest them?

Thanks,
Andy

[NCLee]

Cut the tops off as soon as you harvest them, leaving about an inch of stems on the carrots. The leaves will be pulling moisture from the root and making them go limp. If you want to use the tops, soon, rinse, wrap in dry paper towels, then a plastic bag. Store in the refrigerator. Rinse the roots to remove any clinging dirt. Dry well with paper towels, store in the refrigerator, until you need them. Wrap in plastic if you have a self defrosting refrigerator.

HTH,
Lee

[AzLoneRider]

Cut the tops off as soon as you harvest them, leaving about an inch of stems on the carrots. The leaves will be pulling moisture from the root and making them go limp. If you want to use the tops, soon, rinse, wrap in dry paper towels, then a plastic bag. Store in the refrigerator. Rinse the roots to remove any clinging dirt. Dry well with paper towels, store in the refrigerator, until you need them. Wrap in plastic if you have a self defrosting refrigerator.

HTH,
Lee

Lee,
This makes sense, I knew leaves pulled moisture out of the root, but never thought it would be that fast.... Thanks for the post.

Andy

[cubcadet]

Last year I grew Chantenay carrots and harvested about an 18 gallon tote full of them. I took plastic buckets and poured moist sand in the pail laid some carrots in it, not touching, and poured more sand in, and so on. They`re still in the sand, in the cool part of the basement. I go and check them occasionally and if they`re sprouting greenery, I dump the pail out, trim the greenery off, put the carrots back in the pail, wash off the greens and eat them. Same with beets. Potatoes just go in a box in the same room.

[AzLoneRider]

With the carrots we have in the garden right now I decided to do nothing and just over winter them out there. I hadn't given them a thought when the other night my son wanted a snack and when and got the biggest one out of the garden... the thing was huge. He washed it up and ate it, gave me a bite, it turned out to be a very sweet carrot. Now they probably won't make it to the end of the month because everyone here is pulling and eating them.

[tomato204]

That is great tho, nothing like a fresh carrot. I remember eating them, back when I had real teeth, lol. Plastic teeth are only good for cooked carrots :(

[AzLoneRider]

Last year I grew Chantenay carrots and harvested about an 18 gallon tote full of them. I took plastic buckets and poured moist sand in the pail laid some carrots in it, not touching, and poured more sand in, and so on. They`re still in the sand, in the cool part of the basement. I go and check them occasionally and if they`re sprouting greenery, I dump the pail out, trim the greenery off, put the carrots back in the pail, wash off the greens and eat them. Same with beets. Potatoes just go in a box in the same room.

This seems like a good way to store carrots, if I get a good crop of carrots next year I may try this.

[AzLoneRider]

That is great tho, nothing like a fresh carrot. I remember eating them, back when I had real teeth, lol. Plastic teeth are only good for cooked carrots :(

Tomato,
You could always take your teeth out and gum the carrot's to pieces. /joke :-)

[cubcadet]

AZ, It is the only real way to put root crops up for cold storage. My dad once put a whole bushel of apples on a wooden growing table in the root cellar,and covered them with wet maple leaves. We were eating sour apple pie and sauce all that year till at the end when they froze solid. Beets, rutabagas, carrots, all root crops do very well in moist sand. They keep wanting to re-grow. You just have to keep picking the greenery. And make sure none goes bad. Rot will spread to the good ones.

[Moody Vaden]

I always leave them in the ground, cover with straw, and harvest when needed. After a few good frosts the starches turn to sugars and you can't find a sweeter carrot.