Sunday, October 31, 2010

Storing Carrots

I harvested most of my carrots this week. Bumper crop! HOORAY!  Now, what to do with them?
Carrots need love too!
Here are some of the ways we store our carrots:
  • We make smoothies with carrots, apples, etc.  But it's difficult in the winter when you don't have any fresh fruit or veg.  So, we juice some of our carrots and make ice cubes with the juice.  We take them out of the trays and put them in freezer bags to later use for smoothies.
  • We store whole carrots in wooden boxes filled with sand.   A layer of sand, then a layer of carrots, a layer of sand...  and so on.  They will store this way through the winter in our garage.  (We don't have a root cellar - yet.)
Just a few notes about storing carrots:
  • Carrots like to be stored in cool - moist - conditions.  We spray just a bit of water on our carrots as we layer them with sand, and occasionally through the winter we will spritz the top of the sand with a little water.
  • Temperature is important - they need to be kept cool.  But more important is even temperature - a fluctuation of even 5-10 degrees can cause carrots to rot or grow - not good.
  • Cut the top growth back to 1/2" but don't cut off the tip - that can cause rot too.
Carrots are good and good for you - so store some to use over the winter!

Get your hands dirty!

2 comments:

  1. That was totally fascinating! I had no idea carrots could be stored over the winter without being bottled or frozen. (And the picture of your twisty carrot is awesome!)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I used to do the same thing with the pureed carrots that I fed my babies when they were little...but storing carrot juice is a new concept for me. What a helpful post!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for commenting! Sign up to be a Follower so you don't miss any of my posts!