Down n Dirty with the Carrots

So in a previous post I said all we had going on with the garden at this time of year was broccoli.

This post will prove I was lying....

I totally forgot about the carrots.  Which is what you're supposed to do! 

If you leave a root vegetable in the ground for a few frosts, they turn sweeter.

We discovered this when we grew parnsips in previous years. 

For whatever reason, the parsnips didn't even come up this year!

Carrots are nutritionally awesome.  The website http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/ says "The power and goodness of carrots - Carrots have many important vitamins and minerals. They are rich in antioxidants Beta Carotene, Alpha Carotene, Phytochemicals and Glutathione, Calcium and Potassium, and vitamins A, B1, B2, C, and E, which are also considered antioxidants, protecting as well as nourishing the skin. They contain a form of calcium easily absorbed by the body. Finally they also contain Copper, Iron, Magnesium, Manganese, Phosphorous. and Sulphur - better than a wonder drug!!"

We asked the boys to come help out with the digging up of the carrots last weekend.

It turned into quite the adventure!

As soon as big brother Noah got digging...Owen was jumping right in. 

He kept yelling, "Get me a shovel!"

Big brother Noah gave Owen instruction on how to properly pull out a carrot without grabbing up only the greens and leaving the rest of the root in the ground.  The sound of surprise in Owen's voice when he produced his first carrot was hilarious.

Turns out we produced some monster carrots this year!

Owen was compulsive...non-stop carrots pulling...

For about 10 minutes...which is a long time for him actually.

Noah kept on working for a few hours, pulling up carrot after carrot.

Each time he thought he had unearthed the biggest carrot of the year...the next one would be even bigger!

This was our total end of season haul.  Orange and purple carrots!

Some of the carrots turned out bigger than my head!!!

Keep in mind that we had already dug up half of the total planting.  We haven't bought store carrots in over two months...

We brushed off the excess dirt and broke the greens off of the top. 

We will keep them this winter in buckets, labelled, filled with moist peat.

Unlike potatoes, root veggies need moisture to stay fresh all winter.

This is something I've only read about.  Its our first year storing food without the use of hydro electricity!

We have a makeshift root cellar in our basement.  The onions kept well down there last year, in wire baskets.  We don't currently have a temperature gauge in the cellar...but that may be something I'll invest in this year.

I'll be doing future posts on root cellars...as they are my new-found obsession!  Storing food without using electricity is amazing to me.  The concept has been around for ages...but for whatever reason root cellars have fallen out of fashion.  I am to bring new awareness of it.  Anyone who owns their own house can do it!

Keep an eye out for a root cellar tutorial...

Sexy Sailors! ok...its really about parsnips...

Its it sad that I couldn't come up with a delicious sounding post title....I know everyone turns their nose up at parsnips!  I used to be one of you!!!  Several years ago I read an article in Canadian Gardening magazine that stated if you left your parsnips in the ground until a few frosts had hit them...they turned into a COMPLETELY different vegetable...

Thats where they had me....I HAD to find out how different they were...and it was such a dramatic flavour...I became a born-again parsnip lover. 

This year we staggered our crop of parsnips and it allowed me more time for peeling and chopping these massive roots vegetables.  After I peel and chop...they get placed in freezer bags (not heaping full, just half full then pressed flat).  I ended up with 4 large freezer bags of them...and I ate plenty while we were digging them up!  They are great prepared like a roasted potato, or added to mashed potato (which I use on top of sheppard's pie)...that is until I saw this month's recipe in my Foodland Ontario 2011 recipe calendar.

PARSNIP, APPLE & BRIE SOUP....

I HAD to try it....I like each of the individual ingredients enough to want to make it.



Straight out of the calendar

  I was hoping you could read the recipe in the above picture...but basically its 4 cups parsnips, peeled and chopped, 4 cups veg or chicken broth, 1 onion, 1 tsp of butter, 2 apples, peeled and chopped...125g of brie and salt and pepper to taste.  Melt butter and fry onion until just cooked, add parsnips, apples and broth, simmer until soft.  Use blender or handblender to smooth.  Cube the brie and add while warm. 


my version


I will DEFINITELY make this again!  A few alterations though...I would use 3-4 apples...instead of just two.  I would also use the whole 200g wheel of brie.  I love brie.

This soup was wonderfully hearty and tasty.  Technically all I had to buy was the brie...as we buy broth in bulk, had parsnips and apples in the freezer, and saved a dozen onions from the garden in a slightly make shift root cellar...which is working out so far...but its more accidental than planned out.

I encourage you to try this soup out...it may just bring you back over to the parsnip side!!!

Eat yer Parsnips!

This is the perfect time of year for parsnips!  I know, I know...parsnips?  Seriously?

I never used to like parsnips...perhaps that was from being force fed the poor roots as a child.  Last year I got a Canadian Gardening issue with an article about growing parsnips and leaving them in the ground after the frost.  As the article suggested, they transformed into a different vegetable altogether. 



digging in the garden for the the last crop of the year....PARSNIPS!





My husband and I were up for an experiment...as most of our gardening has consisted of trial and error guess work.  We purchased the seeds and last year we grew our first crop of parsnips.  We Planted them during the May 24th weekend and left them alone basically until after the first major frost. (ie.  after the first morning we had to scrape the car windows off.)

The result:  amazingly sweet root veggies!  The parsnip has a mild nutty flavour, but they do lack in colour on the plate.  We have tried cooking the parsnip in a variety of ways.  For example, we boiled them and we roasted them.  I sauted them with oil and walnuts and garlic.  I finally decided the best way to eat a parsnip is to sneak it in.  I've hidden the savoury roots in sheppard's pie and squash soup. 

My favorite way to prepare the parsnip (by far) is in my roasted root vegetable dish.  Its made up of sweet potatoes, white potatoes, carrots, parsnips and a coarsely chopped onion.  Toss in oil and a pinch of kosher salt.  Roast at 400 degrees F uncovered for approx 30 min.  Check them half way through and toss, adding more salt if desired.

For storage you can do one of two methods.  Freezing or root cellaring.  A root cellar is something I deperately want to try.  Given the right conditions, I'm told, a parsnip can last in a root cellar until next spring!  The idea of storing food without using any fossil fuels is something I could really become fanatical about (especially after our last hydro bill!!!)

We dig up the parsnip by digging out the area next to the roots and working our way inward.  The parsnip root gets VERY deep, so you don't want to shove your shovel through the mid-section of the vegetable.  we knock off as much soil in the garden, and then again at the outside hose.  I scrub them off in the kitchen sink with the potato scrubber and then to the cutting board!  Peel and chop the root.  I have found that the larger the shunks are, the better for year round roasting.  Last year we chopped some smaller to slip into sheppard's pie....but the result was that they hardened when cooked.  Fill a large freezer bag 1/3 full.  Then flatten out and freeze.  You can add more later on, once the new ones are frozen too....but this method allows for freezer separation....instead of one massive clump of frozen parsnip. 

 

Prepping the ground pt 2

Soil

So on the last post I showed you how we add leaves to our compost and gardens to add lightness to the soil...which the plants love as they have loads of nooks and crannies to grow huge root systems. 

Now its time to talk about other ways in which you can help keep the nutrients in your soil.  We actually add soil directly into our soil....does that even make sense?  Ok, I'll illustrate...



top left: planter soil, top right: end of the season plants, bottom: more leavings

Planter Soil
We have a lot of planters around...we use them for herbs and cherry tomato plants, but we also have a lot of houseplants.  Sadly, our houseplants do very well all summer long on the back porch, but they barely survive indoors in the winter time.  Between the lack of direct sunlight on a lot of our windows and our menacing cat called Buster...they don't stand a chance.  Usually I need to make tough decisions in the fall.  Which plants will I save and which will I use for compost?  Once I've decided...I dump the soil from the planters directly on our garden patch (as shown in the top left hand picture)

End of Season/Leavings
Once the plants in your garden are spent (meaning not giving you glorious fruit or veggies any more) then you can leave the stalks and leaves right in your garden!  We pull ours up to speed up the decomposition process.  Pull and leave then directly on your garden patch.  Easy!  (as shown on the top right hand picture)

The bottom picture shows our main garden patch with the leaves from our parsnip plants.  It this time of year that everything else is spent in our garden, but we still have parsnips to dig up!  We wait for the first few frosts, then dig them up for the best flavour. 

Since we use a roto-tiller in the spring time, there is no reason why the composter must do all of the work with the heavy parts of plants.  The stalks are tough to break down..so we let the winter and the tiller do the work for us.  Keeping in mind that the plant parts themselves must be free of parasites and other harmful things...if they do we burn them in our burning bin...(I like to play it safe, but this is overkill....and if you have an urban garden, this may not be allowed).  Healthy plants parts still contain nutrients that will break down over time and again leaving room for the roots of next years plants to grow strong.

Next post:  MANURE!