I must confess, my garden was not a priority last year! I had a little baby and had recently been become the president of a very large Primary, the last thing on my mind was the garden. I did manage to get the majority of the tomatoes and peppers put away and I hung the onions in the garage to dry but somehow the carrots were completely forgotten about. One beautiful sunny January afternoon my mother was tending my kids and C7 wanted to play basketball in the back yard. While supervising the basketball game Grandma wandered over to the garden and noticed an entire row of untouched carrots. Grabbing a nearby shovel she began digging up the roots
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Because it was January the ground was still very hard so many of the carrots broke in half. One carrot in particular caught her attention as it was approximately four inches in diameter! She was only able to get about 8 inches of it out of the ground before it broke in half but I am quite sure she wasn’t even close to the bottom of the carrot as the broken end was still very thick. It was obvious I had neglected my carrots for far too long.
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As spring time approached and I began getting the itch to work in the yard, I turned a bit of my attention to the patiently waiting carrots in the garden. I began digging about 2 feet at a time (that was all that would fit in my basket). I made carrot soup, I made spinach shakes, and I gave carrots to everyone I knew.
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Still, there was hardly a dent in my 19 foot row. Now, it is almost Memorial Day, the date all Southern Utah gardeners wait for as the ‘go ahead’ date to plant the garden and I still have 10 feet of carrots hogging space that rightfully belongs to the peppers.
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J5 pulled some carrots for our dinner Monday night and I was sad to see how quickly their quality has declined. They were no longer plump and brightly colored but were thirsty looking and hairy. When I peeled them they looked woody and dry inside, not at all what a beautiful home grown carrot should look like. So now the great debate is; what do I do with ALL THESE CARROTS? I’m afraid I don’t have much option now… as I mentioned the quality has declined so these may just have to become horse food. If only I had a horse…..
