Carrots
Carrots
store well and so are a vegetable that you can enjoy for most of the
year. In the winter you will be using main crop carrots that are not in
their first flush of youth, but they still have lots of flavour and are
packed with vitamins.
If you grow your own you will probably have lifted your carrots in the
autumn and stored them in a frost-free shed in sand. In areas where you
don’t expect the ground to be frozen for long periods you can leave
carrots in the ground over winter, though they will be vulnerable to
predation by mice, voles and slugs. As the days lengthen they will start
to grow little hairy roots from their sides, in preparation for sending
up a flower stalk, so this is the time to lift and use them all before
they develop a hard core.
If you are buying carrots, try to find “dirty” carrots, those that have
earth on them. Not only does this show that they have been grown in real
soil not in a high tech growing medium, but it also preserves their
flavour and texture much better. Washed carrots rapidly start to rot
once removed from their plastic bag, whereas you can keep dirty carrots
for weeks in a cool cupboard.
Once carrots have been out of the ground for more than a few days their
skins start to harden and thicken so they will need to be peeled before
you use them. A potato peeler is the quickest and easiest tool for this
though a sharp, thin-bladed knife will do well.
Winter recipes