Ah, the sweetness of carrots pulled off the ground in the cold season! Especially as some snow starts to accumulate on the ground, making the days whiter and the carrot tops so apparent, somewhat crystallized, mildly flopped. A treat for someone like me, raised in a southern country, who never ate sweet carrots her entire life.
Well, in our Quebec reality, though, there comes a time, usually in November, where the ground is frozen solid a good half feet, until it finally freezes for several feet. Getting to my carrots then starts to become an impossible enterprise. This year was rather "funny": harsh and cold temperatures in November and milder weather in December. I knew in early November I had to start a remediation plan for the remaining carrots.
Some of the harvest went straight into packets in the fridge, where we would consume them in the following two or three weeks following. Our carrot bed was not a massive success this year, but it did yield some good results. So, I had to find some quick alternative for keeping the remainder ones we got.
The experiment
I had read a while back about keeping carrots in buckets with humid sand or sawdust. Usually they are clean materials and allow for the indoors storage. They require, however, rather cool temperatures, a true cellar around 5C or less. and I wondered if I could just keep them in... earth. I had no plans to bring the pot inside of the house, considering the bugs it could be housing, so I just decided to experiment.
I took my versatile TubTrug of 26L and filled it halfway. Took my carrots, at this point without their green tops, and inserted them in the earth, as close plugs.I had mostly medium sized carrots, with a few oversized and a few on the small range. They all fit, or I made them to!
I covered the carrots until their top stems were the only thing left visible. And well... left them outside to fend for themselves. This means freezing and thawing as a lot of temperature variation occurred. The one injury they did not suffer was light exposure. Very few sunny days this year, a dark corner in the shed to live took care of it. Plus, no light could really go through to them as the bin is pretty opaque.
It is now late December and I had brought the bin inside only twice, to thaw in the garage overnight so we would be able to harvest a handful of carrots for the upcoming days. I must say was not prepared to the success of it! Somehow I thought they would be mushy or by any means present some discoloration, change in flavor, signs of deterioration. Nope. Still excellent. Delicious!
It is probably worth checking over the years if I can achieve the same success, especially as the climate shifts and we have more dramatic variations of weather. I will then be able to see how and if they would resist a full season outside, say until February or even March. The first step is to plant as many to be able to make it till late! I never seem to plant enough carrots for us! The second step will be to experiment with keeping them in the same way, in bins and buckets, suffering the temperature variations, the freeze and thaw cycles.
Of course dehydrated, canned and frozen carrots are still a possibility and a guarantee to have them in the sad case the experiment fails. But if I succeed, this is so trouble-free! Cut the tops, plug the carrots in the earth and harvest when hungry! A sweet treat (literally) and easy storage? Definitely worth the experiment.
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