Newsletter 7/4/18 – Carrot Love!

Newsletter 7/4/18 – Carrot Love!

We spend a lot of time in the field talking about our favorite things. It’s a good conversation starter when new crew members are out in the field for the first time. “What’s your favorite vegetable?” is a question that always comes up, drawing some ew’s, oooh’s and awes inevitably. I’ve heard a lot of opinions the last three years on why certain vegetables are better than others, and while I certainly look forward to different seasons and the coming of new crops, carrots are always at the top of my list. One reason is we grow a lot of them, and they require a lot of love. Carrots are one of the crops that we always spend a lot of time hand weeding which happens to be one of my favorite tasks. I think there is something special about spending time with a crop while it is still young and developing.

Outside of hand weeding, the carrots also get an extra blanket of love called remay or row cover which helps protect them from pesky rust flies that attack the roots. I also love the fact that we almost always have carrots on the farm, in fact this past year we only had a gap of one week when carrots were not for sale. Whether it’s during the winter months harvesting out in the cold rain alone and standing in a foot of water, or the height of summer laughing with coworkers about the latest farm shenanigans, carrots are always around.

This year we once again have ambitious expectations for the carrots on the farm. We will be growing slightly more than last year hoping to be able to offer more in the wintertime. Not only will we be growing many types of orange and purple carrots but we also added some rainbow carrots to the mix, which has the farm crew really excited. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

-Lane