Carrots!! I have to lighten up about my baby carrots, and allow you to cook them if you wish. I have jumped on folks for what I thought was desecrating our young carrots by cooking them.
We grow several varieties known for their excellent flavor, and the best tasting “odd colored” carrot varieties I have found. Our winter-in-the-ground carrots and earliest hoohouse carrot seeding are Napoli. Our summer carrots are, depending on the year – I am still doing comparisons – Mokum and YaYa. Mokum is my favorite, but YaYa is available as organically grown seed, so I am trying to wean myself from Mokum and support the organic seed industry. I don’t think most folks would notice the difference, but I started with Mokum so feel really comfortable with it. For winter I like the old Scarlet Nantes.
We also grow several “oddball” carrots. Purple Haze has dark skin with a bright orange interior. White Satin is, well, whitish. Atomic Red has red skin. There is one that is purple all through, but it is only available in fungicide coated seed so far, so we are waiting for it to become available untreated. Purple Haze and White Satin are good for fresh eating in the fall, but most of the non-orange carrots are best cooked. I am only growing those that taste OK or better raw.
What do we do with carrots? Carrots munched whole. Carrot juice. Carrot slices alone or as dippers. Carrot slivers on salad greens. As part of roasted veggies (cut up, coat with olive oil, season with rosemary and thyme, and can be done stove top).
Another farmer has written a great article on carrots for his blog, with lots of interesting info. I think you’ll like it: The LadyBug Letter
