Regular readers of this blog may recall my mentioning that I can’t grow carrots. In which case this first harvest may be something of a surprise. Yes they are carrots. But really these are the exception that proves the rule. Out of 5 neatly sown rows that went into the ground nigh on 6 months ago this measly selection is pretty much all I have to show for it. I did harvest a couple of others a week or so ago but to all extents and purposes this is it.
And do you know the worst thing – aside from the lovely orange one in the middle they didn’t even taste any good. So to all those people who’ve ever asked, “should I grow a multi-coloured carrot mix?” I answer a resounding NO! The simple truth (well to my palate anyway) is that orange carrots taste better, a few half decent purple skinned ones notwithstanding.
Far more successful than my carrot crop is my Cavolo Nero, which I would heartily recommend to all lovers of green leaves. These are today’s pickings:
Also going well is my Calabrese (Green Sprouting Broccoli), I got about 3 bundles of shoots this week. This is one such bundle.
I am going through something of a East Asian cooking phase at the moment and this broccoli went into a noodle stir fry, another lot went into noodle soup and another lot again was eaten stir -fried with oyster sauce.
This lovely bowl of herbs and watercress was also used in the noodle soup:
Aside from the mint, chillies, coriander and Vietnamese mint this bowl is predominantly watercress. I’m so excited that my watercress is finally at a harvest-able size. I love watercress and I haven’t had any for ages so its reappearance is much appreciated, especially as my garden is starting to get that barren between seasons look in places.
And now off to Daphne’s with you to see what else is being harvested around the globe.
I’m so glad you said your garden is looking barren like – it’s very slim pickings around here too. As for carrots, check out my harvest to see some equally pathetic looking ones. at least they were all orange and tasted fine – though no better than any other carrot I’ve eaten. Can’t say I’m a fan either! Love the rest, that bowl of herbs and watercress looks wonderful.
My feeling is that Melbourne is just not a great carrot growing place – well the northern suburbs anyway…
Hi Liz,
I’m with you on the carrot question!! I’ve never been able to grow them well…Every couple of years I give them another try but with the same pathetic results!
I love that about gardening – I’ll know something probably wont work but that wont stop me from trying and trying it again.
I’m with you on the tastelessness of yellow and white carrots! Not worth the growing space.
Agreed – never again, Do you know anyone who wants a packet of Carrot Mix seed?
The broccoli looks nice, as does the Cavolo Nero. You win some you lose some in the garden as in life, so those are your wins and the carrots are your losses.
Very philosophical and oh how true.
I have the same problem with carrots. I dream of harvesting big bunches, but those that do grow never seem to get very big. Still I keep on trying! Your broccoli and cress look just beautiful and at the risk of sounding pretty ignorant, what is cavolo nero? Is it a tuscan kale? It really does look good!
It is Tuscan Kale, we often use the Italian names for things in Australia as it was Italian immigrants who brought the varieties with them when they migrated. Or at least I presume that’s why – it may just be that I’m quite pretentious…
I gave up on carrots this year. I only tried them twice and I got about 4 respectable ones. But once I figured out how hard they were to get clean, that pushed me over the edge. I can buy organic carrots at a good price here, so I’ll use my garden space for other things that aren’t as available or reasonably priced.
That is a really good point about cleaning them – all that scrubbing, yet another reason why I should be concentrating on things that like my garden more…
I can generally grow decent carrots but often they are taken out by carrot fly infestation. Had that happen last year and lost almost all of my carrot crop. Very frustrating. Have my fall patch under a garden blanket cover to protect it and so far the spring/summer planting has been good. I branched out to growing some purple carrots in addition to my old orange standby varieties and while they have been tasty and certainly pretty to look at, I think the texture is not nearly as good as the regular carrots. Won’t grow huge amounts of them in the future and thanks to your warning will refrain from the white and yellow varieties altogether.
It might have just been bad varieties in my seed mix but I have to admit I’m not really that convinced.
I so agree with you. I like the flavor of orange carrots better. I did find purple haze a good cooking carrot. It had a very strong flavor and it is OK eating, but much better cooking. The sweet tender ones all seem to be orange.
Do you know I’ve never cooked a purple carrot, I’ve eaten a fair few but I’ve don’t recall ever cooking one – I will have to try.
Oh those dang carrots! I tried them once and failed (they simply did not get nice and big like they show on the seed packet). I am trying them again in hopes of an early winter harvest since they’ll be in a big planter facing south. If it looks like they aren’t doing anything, then I’ll let them overwinter. Should THAT fail, my dogs will gladly take whatever they can get. They love carrots like there’s no tomorrow.
I hope it works for you. I have to say I’m always amazed when I look at carrot prices in the shops – for such a difficult vegetable they are amazingly cheap – here they are pretty much the cheapest vegetable you can buy so someone must have the knack of growing them.
Thank you for warning on white and yellow carrots, I was thinking of adding white to the next year but now won’t bother. I like Purple Dragon for cooking but regular orange is best for eating.
That’s really interesting about the cooking purple carrots – I’m going to have to persuade my dad to grow some so I can experiment.
Don’t feel bad. I grow quite a few carrots but my dd still tells me the grocery store ones taste better. Wish I could find the perfect carrot and the perfect grow time!
I have to admit I prefer the grocery store’s to most of mine too…
I love Cavolo Nero also, but I hate that it is quick to bolt, it seems like it just starts to pump out the leaves and then the next thing you know it’s blooming. I’ve just started my seeds for a fall/winter crop, I hope it gets big enough in the next couple of months so that I can get a decent harvest before it bolts in January. You’ve inspired me to give watercress a try, wish me luck!
I know – I looked at one of my plants today and noticed a tell tale flower head about to start protruding…sigh…its that time of year – all my plants will be at it soon…
Ohh, carrots. How I hate thee. I never learn though and this year have been trying them Again. Orange and purple have gone in only to be tunneled into by my first ever carrot root fly invasion. Now, determined to either succed or burn the total failure forever into my memory, I’ve sowed three more rows into a raised bed (apparently carrot flies are the D-student of flying). Fingers crossed.
I’m totally with you on the kale though! Comes through every time in our winters to give much needed leafy greenness to hearty soups and stews with sausages and some of the summers accidental big beans. I’m having to resist grazing on the little sproutlets of land cress coming up. They’re soo tasty and I’ve gone rabid for them after putting overpriced water cress on my ‘until I’m better paid’ list.
I like the image of flies that can’t, or can’t fly well at any rate. He he he..
A carrot is better than none. First a carrot, then twelve – then rows of them. It took me years of trying so don’t give up! It looks like a good carrot at least. Your greens look lovely, too.
The middle one did taste great I have to say.
Carrots haven’t grown well here this year – don’t know if it’s the weather, the seed or something else I got wrong. I’d gladly trade my few carrots for a lovely bowl of watercress and herbs like yours though!
I’m loving the watercress it has to be said.
I do sometimes wonder with the trend towards exotic colors in vegetables is resulting in hybridizing the taste out of them… thanks for the carrot report!
You could well be very right, although I wonder if the reverse is partially true too – that in all the rush for heirloom vegetables we’re actually reviving some varieties that perhaps were consigned to history for a reason…
Ahh Carrots !!! each season I try my luck and sometimes get a few but if space was a problem I don’t think I’d bother. Liz you certainly are inspiring me to grow a larger range of veggies this coming season, on my list already are peppers,eggplants,chilies, asian greens and of course the Curry tree and now watercress………….
Just waiting for this #/*#! rain to stop so I can get out there and plant up my cold frames. Oh and maybe a mini lime tree too!!
Great veg list – looking forward to reading about it. My parents (similar climate to yours – although maybe slightly milder) have a lovely lime tree that is doing really well for them. They planted it a couple of years ago and the crops this year have been really worthwhile so that I would definitely recommend.
My first sowing of carrots did nothing, second sowing is growing but there may not be sufficient time for any to form harvestable size. This is my last year trying. I was going to look into how to grow watercress, but never got around to. Did you write a post on growing watercress?
I did write a post – if you click on the watercress tag you should find it. Basically though I just grow it from seed and plant it in my main beds – they have enough moisture in them to sustain it during winter and spring and our summers are too hot for it so it dies away then anyway.
I’m trying to get the fall crops up and running so hopefully won’t have too much time in the ‘tweens. Your harvests look great!
Every year I think I’m going to get better at not have hungry gaps and every year I seem to manage to have them. Oh well gives me something to aim for I guess..
I sympathies with you. Carrots are very hard to grow ( having never grown carrots in my garden this is what I have learnt from the blogs of friends who grow carrots) so don’t beat yourself up.
I have to admit I’m not that worried, especially as my parents grow them very successfully so i get to eat theres (and the kids get the fun of pulling them at their place too).
We’ve grown a yellow carrot – Yelllowstone that was delicious. Looks like a bit of carrot fly on one of the carrots – do you cover them?
Purple is the original colour of carrots as the Dutch bred the orange carrot (house of Orange etc) so maybe the purple is an old unimproved variety. I wonder if the soil affects the taste of carrots just as it does potatoes.
I don’t cover my carrots. Something has definitely had a nibble at them but I’m not sure if we get carrot fly or if its something else. The white one was completely unaffected. The yellow one was the most affected and the orange had some little holes in it but I think something completely different probably caused those.
Interesting that you do well with kale – and I don’t (yet!) – and I do fairly well with carrots and vice versa. My triple-dwarf kale are still sitting there, doing nothing, mocking me.
Very slim pickings around here at the moment. Silverbeet, chillies, lemons, parsley, rocket and various herbs is about it. But I pride myself on having something (even if it’s only parsley) from the garden included in our dinner every night. Thank goodness for freezers!
Oh, and eggs. They’re from the garden, right? One of my two chooks has gone broody and she is a force to be reckoned with. I’m trying to break her ‘trance’ by picking her out of the nesting box when I can. When I did that this afternoon she let out a blood-curdling screech, worthy of a B-grade movie, puffed herself up like a turkey and attacked my sweet and gentle cocker spaniel who was the innocent bystander in all this. Ah, the dramas of a little bit of country in the ‘burbs!
Great story – made me laugh out loud. I think the trick with kale is sowing at the right time. I find that it likes to be pretty well established before the colder weather sets in. If the plants are too small then they don’t do much over winter but if they are bigger they seem to keep growing. Well that’s my current theory anyway…
I was always suspicious of the colored carrots and don’t even find the colors attractive. I don’t grow them anyway because of the 6 inch raised beds. I would have to grow the stubby kind. You kale looks great. Around here that variety is known as dinosaur or Lacinato, but it is also called Tuscan kale. I grow the Siberian variants and don’t have the bolting problem in the fall. My Beedy’s Camden overwintered and produced into July. Even when it started to flower, I just cut off the flower stalks and continued to harvest leaves, which remained tender and non-bitter
It is Tuscan Kale but we tend to call it by its Italian name here – good to know its other names though. Mine is just starting to bolt so I’ve nipped out the flowering centre and hoping it will produce some more leaves for me.
Oh am I the only person who loves home-grown carrots in all colours?! Persevere everyone, they’re fantastic!
Liz my Calabrese broccoli has started sprouting, but it’s incredibly bitter to eat. Does yours taste like that? I’m much preferring the purple sprouting broccoli which we just started harvesting this week. Your watercress looks great, I might give that a go too.
I’m glad they have a devotee somewhere. No my broccoli isn’t bitter at all – some of the stalks are a bit tougher than they wre earlier in the season but the flavour is still good. Where are your seeds from? Perhaps its a slightly different variety?
Yes actually you’re right, after I wrote that comment I went back and checked and it’s a variety called de Ciccio. Must remember not to plant them again next year…
I’m with you, I cannot grow carrots, I’m sticking to growing mini version if I want to have any at all. The broccoli looks very nice, I’ll have to buy some seedlings this year as I don’t have time to nurse them to transplant sizes.
I have to say I’ve been very grateful for all the can’t grow carrots style support. I think now I can give up on them and do it without worrying about it whatsoever…