I like carrots. I wouldn’t say I love them or seek them out every day, but they can be a sweet, convenient, healthy snack. They add crunch to a salad. I’ve been known to drink carrot juice on occasion. If attending a pot luck and one of luckers brought a plate of cut vegetables with a ranch dipping sauce, I would likely take a carrot or two on my plate. Sure, I would rather take the raw broccoli, but it’s rarely cut to an appropriate bite size, and I have been told it’s not polite to dig through the stack of broccoli to find the pieces that are. Soups are often good with carrots. The carrot rarely encounters pests in the garden. I understand rabbits can be an issue, but not so much here. It’s a solid vegetable.

And so I was troubled this year with the carrot crop – not that they didn’t grow, because they grew just fine, wonderfully even. They just taste bad. Anne is holding out hope that with the frosty weather they will sweeten up a bit. I’m skeptical, but willing to keep trying them. And next year, a different variety will be ordered. Maybe a couple different varieties.

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Thinning veggies is often neglected as the act ends the potential of the sprout. Eating mature veggies, technically vegecide, doesn’t seem to bother anyone around here. The potential is so marvelous and unknowable. And even though we understand that this potential will never be achieved if left to compete with a carrot or beat rubbing elbows, we have traditionally been reluctant to thin.

I’m improving though. These carrots were satisfying to thin since we could actually make use of them. The radishes and beats were not quite so giving, and I still have a ways to go with squash, pumpkins and cucumbers. When five seeds sprout on a hill, I have difficulty deciding who stays and who goes. I then allow more to stay than I should. I rationalize that some might fall ill, or sustain dog or deer damage. Surely there is enough soil and nutrients for four, right?

Chinese new year was Feb 3rd. Happy belated year of the rabbit! Hope this doesn’t mean we will have more of these fuzzy creatures in the garden this year.

A peck (1/4 bushel = 2 gallons) might be a conservative estimate, it’s been a great year for peppers.

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Above is a paprika pepper. It’s been a decent producer and much larger peppers than I expected – bigger than a golf ball and smaller than a billiard ball. I had anticipated more spice to them, but there isn’t really any kick to these. They aren’t exactly sweet though either. I’m not sure how to describe the flavor. Smokey?

We grew a large variety of peppers this year. Let’s review.

Canary Bell – A green to yellow/orange bell. Nice size and flavor. Best when allowed to ripen rather than eating green. Most susceptible to blight this year.

Healthy Red – A sweet yellow to red medium sized tapered pepper. Very solid. Very aromatic. Very good. Heavy producer. Needed staking.

YumYum Gold – A sweet green to red (even though the name and pictures suggest more orangish hues). Smaller tapered shape. Perfect for morning eggs, salsa, pizza, etc. Probably my favorite of the sweets this year.

Paprika – See above. Also somewhat susceptible to blight. I thought I might try to dry some, but eating them proved easier and delicious.

Cayenne -A spicy green to brilliant red. A small, quintessential chili, crinkly shaped pepper. Has some serious kick and nice lasting burn.

Bulgarian Carrot – A spicy green to orange, jalapeno shaped pepper. These were grown from last years seeds and did not seem to produce as much. And one plant turned out to be mutant. Fun. Looks to be a cross between the B Carrot and Tabasco (also grown last year).

Tabasco – A very small and very spicy pale yellow to orange/red. We grew these last year too, but none had time to ripen red. I have collected over a pint now. It seems to me the spice of tabasco doesn’t linger for long. The fruiting habit of the tabasco is interesting as the peppers are small enough to point up to the sky (image below).

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