February Fresh!

Oh, Y'all, I'm so tickled!

Back in October we took a chest cooler down into our root cellar, filled it with clean dry sand (from Home Depot) and carrots from our garden. Then we added water - just to make the sand a bit moist, and went away for about 4 1/2 months.

In the mean time, I've been doing my best to use up all the little dinky carrots that germinated really late and didn't grow very much. Today, I needed a break from peel peel peel - carrot stick, peel peel peel - carrot stick ,peel peel peel - carrot stick. So I returned to the cellar to see how our carrots were holding up.

My friend Treesje told me about doing this and gave me some great tips. She said to put a little sand, a layer of carrots, picked, topped, but not washed, and make sure none were touching. Then add more sand, then more carrots, until you run out of sand, carrots, or space. Then, add water to moisten the sand.

Treesje had also explained to me that the carrots would sprout a little and would get some hairlike roots on them. Sure enough, that was true.

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But they felt firm and looked nice. I scrubbed off the sand and topped them, and put a nickel in the sink so you'd get a sense of how big and nice they are.

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I cut up the little one and made a pot of chicken noodle soup. It tasted great raw and cooked, and the texture, color - everything is perfect! Thank you, Treesje! Now I can make a carrot and raisin salad with a single carrot (instead of 17 little ones). Woo hoo!

I brought in some potatoes too, which looked exactly like...potatoes.

I love our root cellar!

Comments

Our Spin Cycle said…
I'm glad to hear that your carrots are holding up, Dearie. I don't think we even planted carrots last summer. Isn't it sad that I can't remember?!

Anyway, if we did, we certainly don't have any left! Heehee!
Jennie said…
Oooooh good work!
I didn't have time/money for sand when I was surprised with a box of carrots late last fall. I should have made the time though because they were not happy in our dry basement and I had to feed most of them to the worms.

A mutual blog-friend, Lamb, sent me here. :-)
Laura said…
J - It seems like you and I have both been doing a bit of memory lapse when it comes to last year's garden. Too much, perhaps? ;)

Welcome, Jennie! I've never had luck keeping carrots 'dry' either, except in the crisper drawer of the fridge. If you get a chance to get hold of an old cooler and a bag of sand, it really does work well. My friend Treesje who taught me how to do this doesn't have a root cellar and keeps them in her (attached) garage with pretty good results too.

Thanks for stopping by, Dearie!
Toni said…
Awesome!! I'm so impressed!!!

Toni (kamper)
Laura said…
Thanks Toni! (hugs!)
indie mama said…
Those carrots look beautiful and tasty!
Laura said…
Thanks, Indie Mama! They are sweet and juicy. Our ground loves to grow carrots! (and potatoes, beets, green beans...and cherries!)

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