While recuperating from surgery last week I was looking for tasks that I could do while sitting and not exerting myself too much. The week before I had harvested carrot seed heads that had dried out in the garden and put them in brown paper bags to dry. With rain in the future forecast for 4 or 5 days in a row I wanted to keep them somewhat dry if possible. Sitting at the table and picking out carrot seeds was the perfect job for me. Or so I thought.
So with morning coffee in hand me and the carrot seeds bonded. Talking about a boring job. Like watching paint dry or something.
Well I got most of them separated. I now have carrot seeds to plant a bajillion acres of carrots. But you know what with the way things are going these days with seeds I think I will just be thankful and hang on to them. I am going to let them dry more for now. Since they are spread out more I am hoping in another week or so I can run them through a colander and most of the fuzzy hairs will come off. With summer rains and high humidity it seems to take some time to get them good and dry but you do not want to store them until they are dry or they will mold in storage.
This is the heirloom variety Danvers. Danvers carrots are medium sized carrots, often called “half size.” They were once a choice carrot for their flavor, especially when young, because mature roots can become fibrous. Danvers was an early orange cultivar. Danvers carrots were developed in the 1870’s in Danvers, Massachusetts. The variety was shared with Burpee in 1886 and became a popular seed due to the root’s deep orange color and rich flavor. This variety does better than many popular carrots because it forms nice roots even in heavy, shallow soils.
My original seeds came from Everwilde Farms my favorite source for heirloom and open pollinated seeds.
I also found this video on YouTube that I found very interesting for planting carrots. I plan to give it a try!
With rain all weekend I am off to the yard to try to tame the lawn before it invades. I think it grew 2 inches overnight.
Blessings from the Holler
The Canned Quilter
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Saving seeds is the best thing to do. Once a standard practice, but not anymore!!
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if you had a recipe for homemade Rotel tomatoes? Thanks for sharing if you do!
ReplyDeleteI like this recipe
Deletehttps://canninggranny.blogspot.com/2012/07/canning-homemade-ro-tel.html
What a great tip about sowing carrot seeds! I have had a lot of trouble growing carrots because they dry out so easily. This year I presprouted and grew them in containers. It worked really well! Learned about it from Home Grown Veg on Youtube.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPrZIwOWNvem_IAuGgmIWlg
Yeah for me carrots are notoriously finicky also. I have never tried presprouting them.
DeleteI have never been able to successfully grow carrots. This fall I want to try again.....any pointers on how to grow them
ReplyDeleteThese seeds are from last year's fall planting of carrots. The trick to planting carrots for me is keeping them moist and having a bed of deeply prepared soil. Super crumbly. Once planted I cover them with a board until they sprout and spray them several times a day. Once they come up you want to fertilize them regularly. Grow them off fast. Super fast with lots of fertilizer.
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