Topic: They taste like CARROTS!

[Grandma]

These are just my first lot of 'thinnings' - but did they taste good! Had some raw - (wonderful!) - and the rest cooked - (beautiful!) :)

Makes you wonder what 'they' do to the carrots we buy that takes away all that lovely flavour!?!

Perhaps they're plastic ............... ???

[silverbirch]

You know, I almost spat out the first ever carrots I grew myself.  Couldn't work out what the "funny" taste was!!

Your'e one up on me this year.  I think all mine ended up being washed on to the next plot.

[Lauren S]

I think the *shop* bought carrots taste like plastic because they keep them in cold storage for transport. As most people will agree, straight from the soil is best  ;D...Beautiful taste.

Your thinnings looking great Grandma...Well done

Lauren  :)

[SnooziSuzi]

Out of an entire packet of about 200 seeds I think I only managed to eat about 10 - the rest were eaten by #1 son as he was 'thinning'!

the fly got the rest because we just couldn't stop 'thinning' them out!

[kt.]

the fly got the rest because we just couldn't stop 'thinning' them out!

Spread more thinly next year & you should do better. ;)

[debster]

looking good

[asbean]

They're lovely and straight - are you sure they aren't from the supermarket??????  ??? ???

[lorna]

Quite agree about the taste. I only eat them raw.. delicious. Rest go to the family for cooking. First time I have grown carrots.

[saddad]

Our best ever year for Carrots! Have 14 rows in at various stages of development and three just germinated... my dream is to never need to buy a carrot again!!!
 ;D

[cambourne7]

my carrots have been very bad this year.

Tried seed tape for the first time, had high germination rate but then they just did nothing.

There now just 1/3 a row actualy grown smaller than a finger, which is annoying as a fellow plot holder planted the same variaty at the same time and have harvested huge monsters a month ago.

I planted another row a month ago and they are at the same stage!  :'(

I checked my parsnips today and there just bigger than finger thick now :-) which is a good thing.

Cambourne7

[antipodes]

My carrots have been most strange. I have some growing that I sowed in June, they seem OK, the earlies, well there are about 10 carrots. But the ones that have succeeded are dead straight and lovely flavour. They were nantaise I think.
But i will out do cambourne with my parsnips. They are a phenomenal success, the earlies I have dug up 3 and they were easily 30 cm long! with heads and round as the back of your hand!! Haven't actually eaten them yet but they smell lovely. Found a recipe too where you cook them in a frypan in small dices with butter and a little honey and you cover them till they go all squishy and caramelised. I am going to try that with some pork chops this week.
Still the parsnips have been one success against a dozen failures so can't boast :-(
Peppers, melons, squash dead, gherkins never got a gherkin just swollen yellow cucumbers, even the courgettes are letting me down. garlic didn't bulb, most carrots didn't germinate, can't seem to grow radish at all, poor spud harvest and now my strawbs are rotting  >:( It is definitely an annus horribilus I think

[kt.]

can't seem to grow radish at all,

Same here. I have tried sowing different varieties in the ground direct, sowing in seed trays and even in fish boxes.

My parsnips have good tops that are edible - but check out here to view the roots:

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,35073.msg350475.html#msg350475

[green sleeves]

My first year of growing carrots, not a great result small but very tasty. Almost taste like parsnip but when cooked with a tea spoon of sugar the kids love them. I got the kids to plant most of the veg this year and all of a sudden they cant get enough because they are  our own  and the kids think they are better than the shop bought  I even have them using  home made jam's  because they were involved in the makeing of them.