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SWEET TREAT CARROTS ARE A REAL TREAT
It’s carrot harvesting day here in Niceville, where this morning we have harvested the bulk of the carrots growing in my front-yard garden. As I’m writing this, my lovely wife is putting them up in the deep freeze. Carrots are planted from September to March in North Florida. The carrots we harvested today were planted about four months ago, though we have been enjoying them several at a time for about a month now. Carrots grow slowly here in cold weather. So far I am delighted with this variety of carrot, Sweet Treat Hybrid, a new one in my garden. The five-inch long carrots are sweet, crisp and juicy. We have enjoyed them both fresh and cooked. Cooking them seems to bring out the flavor even more. Consider including carrots in your spring garden this year. Work a two inch layer of organic material into the soil, such as dried leaves or grass clippings, about 4 weeks before planting, and remove any stones, sticks or other things that could get in the way of a growing carrot. Sow seeds about an inch apart, thinning to a final spacing of about three or four inches once the seedlings are about one inch in height. Side dress with a balanced fertilizer about every three weeks or feed with a liquid fertilizer. Give them lots of water before harvesting so they will be juicy, not dry. In addition to carrots, our late January harvest also includes broccoli and lettuce. The broccoli and carrots stood up well to our recent rash of hard freezes, and with a row covers protecting it, so did the lettuce. You don’t have to settle for tasteless grocery store veggies. This year, join me and thousands of others here in North Florida who grow what they eat. |
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