It’s Raining Carrots On The Homestead…Well Almost
Hey ya’ll! I am so excited to finally spend some time with all of you and write up a fun post about our fabulous carrot harvest this year! We have really implemented the “square foot gardening” method this year in terms of soil composition and the results with our carrots were nothing short of spectacular and what is really funny is we have not had the best luck with carrots so we weren’t expecting a bumper crop. We ordered these seeds fromSow True Seed Company out of Asheville which coincidentally the Asheville/Black Mountain area is one of our favorite places to visit. We are in gardening zone 8b for your reference and the actual variety of carrot is called are called the Red Core Chantennay although ours didn’t get quite as long and they weren’t red but they were bright orange and they were amazing!
Our soil mixture that we use is:
1/3 peat moss
1/3 vermiculite
1/3 organic compost comprised of 3 different composts (mushroom compost, cow and chicken manure)
This mixture really holds the moisture in quite nicely so for once our garden didn’t dry out completely in the hot brutal Wilmington, NC weather.
We also have our beds divided as seen in this photo here into 4 ft by 4 ft. beds which helps us keep our gardens weeded and they are easier to manage for us in suburbia.
These carrots not only look amazing but they taste delicious. The flavor is sweet and earthy and they are so boldly orange I just love them! The carrots in the first photo at the top is just the beginning of our harvest and then I decided to go ahead and harvest the rest of them recently and here is my Instagram post I shared (below). We had amazing harvests this year of garlic, peppers, carrots, and even our tomatoes actually did well.
I hope you are following us on Instagram because I share a lot of photos and posts over there that I don’t share on Facebook and Twitter. I try to mix things up!
I even told my son whose birthday is coming up next week…yes can you believe it my son who I used to refer to as the Lineman in my life I now refer to as our House Chef he is going to be 19 years old…I can’t even believe it I know I don’t look old enough to have my youngest child be that old. 😉 I asked my son if he would like me to make him a birthday cake made with carrots from our garden of course I will have to skip the nuts for him but that is a fair compromise since it is his birthday after all.
Life is going good…just busy…we are hoping to put our fall garden in this weekend! Our pepper harvest was amazing this year and we used all of our own peppers for my very popular pepper mustard which I now make gluten-free for me and to share with others that may have food sensitivities. I fell in love with Stranger Things on Netflix this Summer it was Sci Fi and 80’s pop culture all in one and I did not make as much homemade ice-cream for us as we are watching our figures more but we ate a lot of fish from Alaska which our son caught when he went out to Alaska with my Mom and we have eaten a lot of vegetables from the garden. I am looking forward to cooler weather though I’ll admit.
I wish you all a beautiful week…Until next time!
Those carrots look amazing!!! We just love carrot cake here and I can’t wait until it cools down enough to use the oven again without melting!! I use an old German recipe for my carrot cake and I put raisins in place of any nuts. I’m craving baked goodies as I haven’t been able to bake here in so long…. Carrot cake, lemon pound cake, apple crisp, Apple cinnamon rolls, Apple sauce cake, and other yummy things!! Hubby is whimpering for home made pizza. It has been nasty hot this past summer and the cooler air feels fantastic!! Enjoy those lovely carrots and the rest of your garden goodies!!
Christine you are making me hungry LOL! I am so excited to make my son carrot cake tomorrow for his birthday! Fun times! We use the oven even when it’s hot here but we have AC I bet you don’t use an AC unit do you? Hope all is well so glad to hear from you friend! That lemon pound cake sounds right up my alley!
Those carrots look great, just followed you on Instagram!
Thanks Chris! We really appreciate Sow True Seed and the passion and love that is involved in all that you all are doing! I appreciate you stopping in to say hey!