Thick Pickings

At just over 34cm long, 22cm in circumference and weighing 2lb 2oz, this must have been the king of carrots for me this season. This was primarily due to the fact that I had left my autumn carrots in the ground rather than lifting and storing them as recommended. January saw the lifting of all of my overwintering crops, with the exception of the Purple Sprouting Brocoli.

Not having anywhere suitable to store my winter crops (I seem to have a large number of mice claiming assylum in my garage this winter - they have made their way through all of my wooden paint brush handles, so I wouldn't hold out a lot of hope for some fresh vegatables), I have had to stick with my 'harvest as required' approach. It became apparent during November that this was not sustainable, particularly with the carrots which seemed to attract slugs from all over the neighbourhood.

My 'Early Nantes' were very disappointing earlier in the year - with very poor flavour and no real keeping ability, especially in the ground where they sucumbed to pests and quickly rotted away. So I wasn't holding out a lot of hope for the late season crop. However, despite their lack of care and attention, Carrot 'Autum King Improved' proved to be quite a success. Those that had grown straight and hadn't forked (which were, admittedly, a minority) were more or less unaffected by pests, even in January. And the flavour was excellent. So when the time came for the spring cleanup a couple of weeks ago, everything was whipped out of the ground and either cooked and frozen or recycled to the compost heap.

In addition to the carrots, out came the Celeriac. Although a little on the small size, 'Monarch' proved to be a great success. Unlike the carrots, these kept well in the ground until the middle of January with no significant damage. The larger roots were lifted earlier on in the season and were eaten as soups or in casseroles. The smaller roots did continue to swell slightly through the season, but with careful preparation they yeilded a good crop. Like the carrots, these were parboiled and frozen (my one regret this season was not to buy another freezer until November)
The Leeks were equally successful - in fact probably the most satisfying veg of the season.

Always on of my favourites for cooking in winter, the 'Mussleburgh' (comparativelty small due to the close spacing) lasted well with a harvesting season from September. This year I'll be trying 2 crops and a different variety for an even longer season.

The swede ('Magres'), on the other had, were a bit of a disaster. One or two of the plants harvested early in the seaon were fine, and everything that was edible had a great flavour. Unfortunately around 90% of them failed to get much bigger than a golf ball, and I'm not really one for 'mini-veg' at the best of times. Although I'm sure that this was partially due to the the lack of fertility in my 'year 1' soil, but more to do with the lack of light and rainwater due to the border being overshadowed by a particularly vigourous and plum tree - something to think about for veg placement this season.

So how was my jumbo carrot? Well, as you would expect - very woody in the centre, covered in slug damage and generally inedible!