I’m quite convinced that everyone needs a few purple haze carrots in their life. Especially sliced thin. So beautiful. This is what I like about growing our own food. We have the option to fill our meals with little works of art like these. They say it’s the small things in life that make you rich. This is one of those small things that we try and fill our days with. Sliced purple haze carrots. And our lives are ever so slightly improved because of them.
We picked (or rather Scott picked) all of the carrots around the tomatoes Saturday. He was inspired after reading the “All About Growing Carrots” article in the new Mother Earth News. They wrote that you shouldn’t leave mature carrots in warm soil any longer than necessary because critters start to find them. And we have started to notice that a few were getting nibbled on.
We also learned that carrots are divided into five types: Nante, Chantenay, Miniature, Imperator and Danvers. our Purple Haze falls into the Imperator category which means that they have long, tapered roots with stocky shoulders and that they store well.
Our little Thumbelinas rightly fall into the Miniature category, who’s notes say that they have a sweet flavor when mature and have only limited storage potential.
So what can we do with this carrot bounty? Well, we can freeze them, eat them raw, can them, pickle them, but I prefer the carrot cake option. Yes, I see a carrot cake in our near future.
I am just amazed everytime I see one of your purple carrots. I didn’t even know they existed! I will have to plant some. They sure are purty!
Gorgeous!
Growing carrots is so rewarding. The big green tops fill int the garden wonderfully. And when you start to see these orange shoulders spreading and peeking up out of the soil you just know that the harvest is coming soon.
I have tended to let my carrots sit for too long in the soil. I’m going to pull them all this week and I may try for a second crop. Should work well.
You can bet I’m going to plop in some purple haze this time around!
Beautiful. We pulled a bunch of Thumbelina’s and Purple Haze the other day and was making a mental note to plant more of both next year. Enjoy your carrot cake!
That would make it a purple haze summer carrot cake. I love that. Carrots seem to be like tomatoes in that people notice the difference between small farmed and those more industrially grown. I’ve tried to serve the purple haze carrots every time I’ve had company this summer to surprise people because I was so surprised the first time I saw them. They are always appreciated.
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Great carrot post! We’re glad the article was helpful.
Laura Evers
Mother Earth News
Great piece about carrots – don’t forget folks there are six carrot colors – yes! six! – see more at the World Carrot Museum.