My husband and I were out in the backyard looking over our garden as he was watering the grass. We were trying to figure out if our carrots were a total wash this year. I suggested pulling one up to see if it was big enough or not. So, he tried to pull one up but the greens pulled away from the carrot and the carrot stayed in the dirt.
He tried to pull up another one but the same thing happened. My husband was pretty discouraged and ready to dig them all up thinking they were a bust. We planted the carrots really close together…well, our boys threw the seeds all over the dirt randomly so who knows where exactly the seeds landed. Only this bunch of carrots survived. We probably had another 15 or more carrots growing happily but C saw me weeding another area in the garden and pulled them all up a month ago.
We decided to just dig them all up and we couldn’t believe what we found…
My husband started digging carefully and the carrots were not only ready but huge and straight, not a wash at all.
We called the boys out from inside the house, they were so intrigued and immediately ready to dig. Between the frantic digging and admiring new carrots fresh out of the ground we were all having so much fun.
The hard part after you start digging them up it to stop. A few of our carrots still needed some time to grow. So, we sacrificed a couple of carrots that were not ready to pick yet. C loves anything “little” and wouldn’t put this adorable small carrot down.
L tried to pull them out of the ground and then dug carefully around them if the carrot needed a little extra help coming out. He worked until they were all out and ready to eat.
After all the carrots were out of the ground C kept digging around to see if he could find any more. I love this picture.
Just another unexpected family moment in our garden. It is only a space about 5 ft by 12 ft but it produces great food, memories and so many opportunities to teach our boys. This was so much fun.
I am really interested: Do you find it addictive to pull out carrots? What is your children’s favorite crop to pick/gather? What is yours?
So good for children to understand how our food is grown, tastes so much better home grown too!
Yes. I totally agree. My boys love fresh from the garden veggies way more than store bought ones. They love this whole process of planting, digging, watering, learning about compost and eating the food we grow. It is so much fun to see them learn! Thanks for stopping by,
I had this image of how easily carrots would just pop right out of the ground only to be fooled last year when I ripped off practically all the greens without getting a single carrot out of the ground! Once I learned to dig a little it got a lot easier. What a great surprise to have all those wonderful carrots. My girls love harvesting food with me and we certainly think of our garden as outdoor play! Thanks for sharing this on the outdoor play link up. You are my feature for this Friday!
Exciting! Thank you for featuring my post. Yes, carrots take hold in the ground way more than I thought they would. Our whole family learns so much from our garden. I love it.
Yeah…love those guys. I’m trying to store them this winter. Any tips? xx
I wish I could give you some foolproof tips but we are beginner gardeners around here. I did find this http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/gist82.html which looks like a through explanation of what temperature and humidity carrots like to be stored at. It might be helpful.
It sure was fun digging up carrots this year. We are hooked!