Tag Archives: growing carrots

Black Nebula Carrot/Soup

Carrots come in all colors these days and this past season, in addition to Cosmic Purple and Atomic Red carrots I grew, (which are orange inside), I found online a carrot variety called Black Nebula. I always want to explore the garden universe! I like to try new varieties and this sounded interesting! It’s deep purple-black outside and inside. I’ve always seen carrots mostly orange inside, so I thought I’d try it. It is an open-pollinated (OP) rare variety and the seeds can be saved. It does well in our heat and grew all summer till harvest time in the fall-75 days to harvest. I got it from trueleafmarket.com. I thought they would be good roasted in the oven with other colors of carrots and they were very tasty.

 

Then I thought of making them into carrot soup. The carrot soup  I make always turns out orange. I knew I wouldn’t put the orange carrots and black carrots together to make soup as I thought the soup would be grayish. I gave Mernie, a friend, some of the black nebula carrots and she made them into soup. It turned out the most beautiful purple color and had a nutty/sweet taste. Ah ha-another way to use them! And they don’t taste like beets but true carrot flavor.

Here is a carrot soup recipe I gave her. You can use it for any carrot soup. As you can see, I’ve used it a lot and made some adjustments. So I went ahead and retyped the recipe as this one is too beat up from use.

Here is the recipe for you to print out. Enjoy!

HARVEST CREAM OF CARROT SOUP

 

 

 

Dec 1 final harvests

Harvested carrots and lettuce On Dec 1, 2023

I decided I better pull out the second crop of carrots before the ground freezes sometime in December. We got 6-10 inches of snow the past few days and even more out in the open. If I had waited, I might not have gotten them out.

The first carrots I planted in late spring by direct seeding and harvested most in September. They kind of stalled out in July but came back in September when the temps were cooler. I did a succession planting of more carrots in August-Sept.

In the garden on Dec 1, the remaining carrots were covered with 12′ of snow. So I dug through the snow till I saw the row cover I had put over them when the nights got cold in November. I pulled back the row cover exposing the carrots. It brings such joy to see how well they did. I think they got so long because I had planted them in a 12′ deep raised bed that I made to grow potatoes one year. The carrots loved the extra depth.

 

 

 

And over in the greenhouse, I had transplanted lettuce starts in early September. I kept the greenhouse windows completely open to keep it cooler and a fan to help as well. Then when it got cold at night, I covered the lettuce with some row cover to protect them. I also buttoned up the greenhouse to keep the cold out but did open the door and some windows in the day when it was warmer. Yesterday I harvested the last of the lettuce. Some had bolted and gotten bitter. The chickens got them. But a lot was still good and hadn’t bolted so that is now in the refrigerator.

I always start lettuce seeds in January inside under lights and put them out in February in the unheated greenhouse. I just grow cold varieties in the winter and use row cover to keep them above freezing at night. So we have lettuce all the way through May. Then the greenhouse gets too hot so don’t grow anything in summer. I did a 2nd succession crop of lettuce in late August-Sept when the temps start to drop. Success!  Nice to see some green (lettuce) and orange (carrots) so late when everything is covered with snow. Now the garden is truly done!

 

 

What do your carrots sound like?

Watch this-too cool!

Cosmic Atomic Carrot Soup

Check out the color in this carrot soup!

Check out the color in this carrot soup!

If you haven’t had carrot soup before, this is really good. I’m not a huge carrot eater but went back for seconds with this soup! It is made with Cosmic Purple carrots and Atomic Red carrots (hence the name) but can be made with any other variety of carrot as well.

Cosmic Atomic Carrot Soup

1 large onion

½ lb. Russet potatoes

½ stick butter

1½-2 lbs fresh carrots, cleaned and sliced

6-8 cups veggie or chicken broth

1 cup cream (or half and half)

salt/pepper to taste

honey (to taste) – tablespoon+

Saute onions in butter on medium heat in a SOUP POT till tender. That way you can just add the other ingredients without using more pots. Add carrots, potatoes and broth and cook till they are fork tender. Pour into a blender and blend till smooth. You will have to do it in batches. You could use a ‘wand’ but I find the blender purees it better and it should be silky smooth. Pour it back into the soup pot. Add honey to taste to just bring out the sweetness of the carrots and stir in well. Taste. Add more honey if needed.  Stir in cream. Reheat till warm but do not boil. Delicious!

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.

Problems Growing Carrots

Last years carrots-Danvers and Cosmic Purple (shown with beets)

Carrots I find can be easy or challenging and I’m not always sure why. Maybe because they know they are not one of my favorite crops to eat. I planted seeds last month outside and hardly any have germinated. I planted Danvers and Cosmic Purple varieties. So I am going to reseed some of them tomorrow. Some years I  get great germination and other years hardly any.

So here’s what I may have done wrong and my excuses (all excuses done in whiny voice):

1. I think I planted too early. The soil was probably too cold and they are either just sitting there waiting for the soil to warm or they’ve rotted and I need to replant. I just read that carrots need the temperatue to be at LEAST 55°F to germinate and I didn’t take the temperature. I bet it was colder. (But I couldn’t find my compost thermometer…)

2. I think some of my seeds are too old. I have several new packets this year but some of my packets are older. I need to check the date stamped on the packet and throw out any that are over 2 years old. We should do this for any of our seeds. (But I need new reading glasses to see the tiny stamped date…)

3. Carrots are heavy feeders and need fresh amendments each year which I didn’t do when I planted the seeds. I’m not sure that matters since they didn’t germinate anyways. (But I’m not really into them. I’m self sabotaging…)

4. I may not have watered enough. I watered every other day but the soil did seem pretty dry whenever I rewatered it. Watering should be consistent to keep soil EVENLY moist. (But it was cold and windy outside…)

5. Maybe the rabbits ate some of the teeny sprouts. I didn’t have it covered with row cover and the rabbits seem particularly hungry this year, especially since my dog Sage is no longer with me to keep them away. (But I couldn’t be bothered to dig out the row cover from the garden shed and I need a new ranch dog or cat to patrol…)

As you can see, I didn’t do anything correct. Anyone can have trouble if we don’t pay attention to details. Sigh! I think I’ll plant some shallots (which I love) where some of the carrots didn’t come up and I will replant some of the carrots as well, just not as many. Which brings up a good point-don’t plant vegetables you don’t really like to eat that much or plant less. Lesson learned..What was I thinking?!