Carrots

I harvested some carrots today. Carrots are one of those mystery vegetables that I have a hard time growing. Here are the reasons: 1) the germination rate is not so high, 2) the birds love the seeds, 3) insects and animals love the leaves, 4) you never know how they are doing under the ground, 5) they take A LONG time to mature. Mine have been growing since March and some of them are still the size of my pinky. I have been pulling out a few at a time to see how they are doing for the last several weeks, only to find them disappointing. Then two days ago, when we came back from a weekend getaway, I found out that something got into the garden (most probably a groundhog) and ate the tops of my carrots and hard beans. So today, I decided to pull out the ones with the tops chewed off. There was a few nice size ones, which  I broke off, underestimating the length.

I am happy about the length and how straight they are. My husband will be happy because he was the one who dug the carrot/potato bed extra deep and spent hours sifting the soil (while telling me "carrots and potatoes are a dollar a pound at the store"). I just wish they were fatter! Maybe it's the soil, but I read somewhere that they don't require much nutrients. I need to do more research. I have been sowing more carrot seeds for the fall crop. They are germinating nicely.

Carrots - 12 1/2 oz