Maincrop carrots

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I’ve had a good year for carrots. I have grown three types – a rainbow mix called “Harlequin”, some “Chantenay Red-Cored” (which turned out not to have red cores!), and a well-known maincrop variety called “Autumn King”. The latter is an “old-fashioned” variety, but one which definitely deserves its popularity. It produces huge deep-orange roots which somehow manage to remain tender despite their size.

My other two types of carrot are finished now, so today I lifted my first batch of “Autumn King”. Some of them are huge.

The biggest one I pulled up today weighed 376g. It’s the fat barrel-shaped one seen in this next photo.

I only have one 2.4m row of these, but because of their robust stature they will produce a pretty decent yield, and keep us supplied for several weeks to come.

After my other carrots were lifted I planted the vacant space with some endives and chicories, which you can see here on the right:

They are still small, but I’m hoping they will mature in their own good time, hopefully before Christmas. Actually I think the Enviromesh which is primarily for the benefit of the carrots will give them a welcome bit of protection too!

By the way, not all the carrots were good-looking…

They may not be pretty, but there’s plenty of useable material there. I often use the irregularly-shaped ones when I make stock, for which they are perfectly fine.

In the meantime I’ll leave you with this. I’m keeping an eye on my carrots, but they are evidently keeping an eye on me too!

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