Tag Archives: CARROTS

Review of 2012 vegetables

fall harvest

2012 VEGGIE LIST

Here is my review of what I will and won’t grow again from last year’s vegetables that I tried and why. I will put tomatoes in another list since there are so many of them!

WILL GROW AGAIN
ARUGULA
-Apollo-nice leaf size and flavor

BEANS
-Rattlesnake bean/pole-remarkably flavored pole bean-grows very tall-great for trellises or arbor
-Tarbais bean/pole-dry bean-after much work FINDING IT last year in the states, you can now get this wonderful bean from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds this year. I will make a french dish called cassoulet with it.
-Fava Bean/bush-wonderful flavor and 2 crops last year. A little work shelling it twice but worth it. Also is a good cover crop replenishing the soil with nitrogen.
-Golden Scarlet Runner/pole-I grow runners for their flowers/foliage-the foliage on this one is a striking chartreuse color against the scarlet flowers-simply beautiful

BEETS
– Craupadine-BEST tasting (but ugly) beet around
-Cylindra-long cylinder shape, great taste, easy cutting into slices

BOK CHOY
-Extra Dwarf Pak Choy-wonderful flavor-I like to cut one in half, saute it in olive oil, and add tamari when you flip it

CARROTS
-Atomic Red-great color and flavor
-Cosmic Purple-one of my favorites

CHARD
-Bright Lights-adds great color tucked into the garden and good flavor
-Argentata-thick juicy stalks with huge leaves-very cold tolerant
-Ruby Red-one of the prettiest and tasty chards out there

CUCUMBERS
-Parisian Pickling-used for making cornichon pickles
-Boothsby Blonde-used for making bread and butter pickles
-Poona Kheera-best flavor for eating
-Armenian– fun to grow, good flavor, few seeds

EGGPLANT
-Fairy Tale-sweet, no bitter taste and tender (not tough) skin

LETTUCES
–Provencal Mix, Mesclun Mix, Buttercrunch, Yugoslavian Red, Santoro Lettuce

PEAS
-Dwarf Sugar Gray-great in salads or steamed, grows about 3 ft tall

PEPPER–want to try some different varieties from Europe this year as well
-Shishito (Japanese non-hot pepper)-one of my favorites
-Poblanos-mildly hot (I call it warm), great for chile rellanos or scrambled eggs, wonderful smoky flavor

POTATOES–first year grower and I’m hooked!
-French Fingerling-OMG, the best flavor!
-Peruvian Purple-I loved the flavor of these as well

SPINACH
-Bloomsdale and Tyee

SUMMER SQUASH
ZUCCHINI
-Costata Romanesco-best tasting zuke around

SUNFLOWERS-technically a flower but they are veggies for the birds!
-will grow another huge patch of different varieties-beautiful and the birds love them
-Russian Mammoth AND Titan– for us/birds to eat
-Black Oil-for the birds only

TOMATILLO-Green-good for tomatillo salsa-only need one plant as they are so prolific.

WON’T GROW AGAIN
BEAN-Emerite bean/pole bean- great flavor but didn’t grow high enough to cover my teepee and I will grow others this year.

CARROTS
-Paris Market-too small, bland flavor, not impressed

CALABICITAS SQUASH
-seed from local grower-turns out it was a native winter squash, not calabacitas squash.

CORN-again not this year (I’ll get it from our Farmers Market)

FENNEL/FINOCCHIO
-Di Firenze-might grow one or two but not 25 plants like last year!

PEPPER
-Jalapeno-I don’t use them enough to call for space in the garden. I’ll just buy the few I use throughout the year.

POTATOES
-Russian Banana-too crunchy and watery

Reflections on a Carrot

I like to take time at the end of the season and reflect on some of the new veggies I grow. It may help you decide if you want to grow something but it definitely helps me decide for the next year especially when my thoughts are fresh about them.  Mind you I’m no expert so this is strictly my opinion. This year I planted 3 varieties of carrots: Paris, Cosmic Purple and Atomic Red.

Paris carrot-photo courtesy of Huffington Post.com

Paris carrot-photo courtesy of Huffington Post.com

Let me start with Paris carrots. They are considered a gourmet variety from France. They look like large radishes only orange and are suppose to have superior flavor. They would be great in very hard soil where a long root would have a hard time penetrating. However, I was disappointed in the taste-rather bland and not all that flavorful so I wouldn’t be growing them again. Perhaps the New Mexico soil isn’t right for them.

cosmic carrot_kitazawaseed com

Cosmic Purple carrot-photo courtesy of Kitazawaseed.com

Next carrot that I grew was a Cosmic Purple carrot. The color is a very dark purple on the outside and bright orange on the inside-very pretty and they are about 6-8 inches long. The taste is excellent with an almost spicy carrot flavor-hard to describe but very good. I have grown these in the past and will grow these again.

AtomicRedCarrot_artefactual org

Atomic Red carrot-photo courtesy of artefactual.org

The last carrot I grew was an Atomic Red carrot-I love everything about this carrot. Although it isn’t a supersweet carrot, it still has excellent carrot flavor. It is also about 6 inches long. But the best thing about this carrot is it has the most fantastic red color.  When added to a carrot soup with other carrots, it gives the soup a deep rich reddish-orange color that is almost neon. It is also wonderful in salads. I will definitely grow these next year.

flowering carrots!

carrot flowers

carrot flower closeup

Carrot Flowers

I didn’t know carrots will flower-and what beautiful flowers they are! Here are some pics of a carrot flower. I forgot to pick the carrot from last year and it is going to seed now. I saw the carrot leaves a few weeks ago but ignored picking it as I thought it would be very woody and not very good to eat. See what can happen if you just let things be!

First I get to enjoy the roots, then the flowers (if I don’t eat the carrot!), and then I will try to get the seeds.  Next year I will let a few more carrots go to seed as I like the flowers so much. Pure joy!

carrot flower just coming out

The secret of carrots and beets in winter!

A couple of days ago was beautiful here so I went out and took out the last of my carrots and beets from last year so I can start some new ones for this year. I’ve been taking them out all winter even though it has been really cold here. The secret? I covered them last fall with about a foot of straw and they have been doing nicely under all that insulation. The ground never froze. Here are the carrots after I pulled off the straw and just before I dug them out.

The next picture is the freshly dug out carrots and beets. Notice I grew both purple and orange carrots. I planted all these last spring!

This picture- they are cleaned up in the kitchen. I love those purple carrots-really sweet tasting. They are purple on the outside and orange inside. Awesome!

And lastly is a picture of the chard from last year doing nicely. I will leave it in and cover it back up and will uncover it when it warms up. Chard is one of those vegetables that will come back each year if protected. And another bonus is the rabbits don’t know it exists under all that straw!