One of my absolute favorite vegetables to grow are Carrots. They’re like a little mystery until you pull them out of the ground to discover what was hidden. I guess when I describe it like that, I love all the root veggies that you can’t see until harvest. What is it about discovering what is hidden beneath the soil that is so fascinating?!

Anyway, it’s taken me a few years to really figure out carrots until I’ve found what works best for me. This is really how I learn most things in the garden — by courageously experimenting, observing what happens, getting curious and then adjusting what I do. This is probably a good lesson for anything in life — to experiment, observe, get curious and try again. Once again, the garden and farm is a teacher for life!

Anyway, back to carrots. After a few years of trying to grow spring carrots, I’ve come to the conclusion that I much prefer fall carrots.

Why is that?

Well, the main reason for me is that carrots are sweeter in the fall. And why are they sweeter? Well the carrot’s instinct for survival through the winter is exactly what makes carrots sweeter to eat! You see, when the cold weather comes, roots like carrots and parsnips convert their starches into sugars which actually helps them avoid freezing. Lucky us, this means that we get sugary sweet vegetables!

I exclusively grow my carrots in my raised box beds. This is so that they have loads of nice, soft soil to reach through and grow long and straight. When I’ve tried to grow carrots in my VERY rocky clay soil… I get twisty, turny lumpy roots.

Sowing carrots for fall is also wonderful because they are a fantastic, easy companion plant. Companion planting is one of the many methods I use to mitigate pests and support everything to grow well in smaller spaces. There are many companion planting combinations where the two types of plants actually help each other. Carrots grow really well with a wide number of other plants — I always plant mine in between the rows of tomatoes which is actually the name of a really good companion planting book: “Carrots Love Tomatoes” by Louise Riotte.

Types of Carrots

Believe it or not, the earliest carrots came from Afghanistan and Iran and were mostly NOT orange in color. The roots and the seeds began to be traded and thus the popularity of carrots grew, spreading wide and far. Seeds for wild carrots, which are a little less palatable, were found rather far back in archaeological sites in Switzerland and Germany as well.

Farmers in Holland were the first to selectively breed for orange carrots trying to secretly show political support for William of Orange. Before that, the original carrots from central Asia were purple or white. These days, carrots come in all of the colors and I love them all!

Here’s some of my favorites:

Gniff: these beauties are a lavender-pink exterior with a white core. They are a rare landrace variety from Switzerland meaning that they are a traditional variety that has adapted over time. These plant varieties are not genetically bred but have, instead, evolved different traits naturally. They are not cloned, hybrids, cultivars, or bred with any human intervention. These are one of my favorites, although a little slower growing than the rest. Even when they’re big and chunky, they stay sweet and delicious without getting woody

Kyoto Red: is a lovely long red variety originating in Japan. Also a slower growing variety, these can have a very sweet almost fruity flavor that is juicy and crisp.

Black Nebula: these are one of the darkest purple carrots I’ve seen — staining the cutting board and other foods you cook with them. They have a bit more earthy carrot flavor and are super rich in the antioxidant anthocyanin and vitamin C. I actually like to use these carrots to dye my yarns lovely purple colors that do well staying light and color fast. If you add acid, like lemon juice, to them, they’ll shift from dark black-purple to pink!

Amarillo: these are my yellow carrots which are a cheery lemon yellow in color with good juicy crisp. A perfect carrot to add to the mix

Purple Dragon: these are definitely the visual stars of the carrot family with a magenta red exterior and bright orange interior. They’re beautiful sliced raw on a salad or cut long-wise and roasted to showcase the two-tone color. They grow long and straight with a sweet carrot flavor.

Chantenay: this is an orange variety that is close to my heart. When I first started to eat local, farm-grown veggies, I had the pleasure of tasting one of these carrots and it blew me away in full flavor! They’ve always been on my list of carrot varieties. These are fat round carrots with a reddish hue to their orange color and great for juicing.

Kuroda: another japanese variety, I grew these for the first time in 2022. I loved how quickly they grew and their juicy flavor with a lovely crips when you bite into it.

Growing Carrots

I grow all my carrots, as I mentioned, for fall harvest. The seeds are super tiny and don’t need to be buried very far. Carrots like a nice loose soil that is deep which is why I always plant them in my 16” tall box beds. The in-ground gardens have a pretty rocky clay layer closer to the surface which would give me carrots that twist and turn.

I gently tap down a row in my bed to make a shallow trench. Then sprinkle the carrot seeds along the trench doing your best to space them about 1/2 inch apart. Then,very lightly barely cover them and gently sprinkle with water. Sowing carrot seeds this way means that once they germinate and start leafing, you’ll want to do what is called thinning them to give the more mature vegetables room to grow. Go through and pull seedlings so that the ones remaining have a little bit of space. Carrots can grow pretty close together but will be healthier with a little space. Your rows should be no less than a foot from each other.

Use the seedlings you pulled! When I thin veggies like radishes, beets and carrots, I’ll keep those pulled seedlings and eat as a microgreen. They’re rich in nutrients, delicious in flavor and the perfect topping for salads, sandwiches or even an open-face toast.

Carrot Recipes

There are countless ways to use carrots from steaming, boiling, and a common favorite — roasting. Here’s two recipes I go to often, both of which can be adapted for what you have onhand.

BAKED CARROTS IN A BAG

This recipe comes from Jamie Oliver’s “Jamie’s Food Revolution”. I often will replace the garlic with fennel and the rosemary with mint or tarragon for a different flavor. If you don’t have oranges you can use lime or grapefruit. You can skip the bacon if you want this to be a vegetarian recipe. Also, if you have a silicone baking bag that is oven safe, feel free to use that instead of tinfoil.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 pounds carrots, peeled
1 slice of bacon, cut into 1/2-inch wide strips
1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary
1 large garlic clove, thinly sliced
Zest of 1/2 orange, minced colored portion of peel
1 teaspoon marmalade
2 tablespoons butter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Juice of 1/2 orange

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Leave carrots whole if they are small (babies). If large or medium-size, cut into 2-inch chunks. Fold a sheet of aluminum foil that is about 2 feet long in half. Open it up and along the crease on one side, place the carrots.
Top carrots with bacon, rosemary and garlic. Add zest, marmalade, butter, salt and pepper. Fold the other half of the foil over the carrots and scrunch and seal two sides of the foil to make kind of a bag, leaving one end open. Squeeze juice from half an orange into the bag. Seal up the final side.
Place bag on rimmed baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven for about 50 minutes, or until tender. Carefully pour carrots and all their juices into a serving dish.

Shredded Winter Vegetable Salad

This is a recipe you can play with and adapt also by changing the spices, citrus juice, fresh herbs or adding other veggies. I’m sharing this one (originally from Martha Stewart) which includes beets. I might add some golden raisins into or a little something crunchy like crushed walnuts or toasted pepitas.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Coarse salt
1 pound raw beets, peeled
2 large carrots, peeled
1/3 cup coarsely torn fresh parsley