In the garden patch it was a year of extravagant experimentation, with attempts to sow, grow, and harvest a wide array of produce. We had some successes (baby kale, lettuce, swiss chard, cabbage after an initial lag), some disappointments (tomatoes, spinach), and some failures (broccoli, bell fuckin’ peppers). And, we had some carrots, which were arguably all three.
The carrots were my idea. One day last summer I was at a farmer’s market, and I was simply bowled over by the smell of one man’s carrots. I even told him, “These smell great!” He told me they taste pretty good too (just one of dozens semi-awkward small talks I’ve had at the farmers market) so I bought a bunch. And it was as if I was eating carrots for the first time. The taste, the crunch, and the smell were so much more intense than supermarket carrots. These were real carrots, and I wanted to grow my own.
So way back in May, we started about 10 carrot plants from seed and then transferred them outside where they grew in between the broccoli and the tomatoes. The carrot greens began to flourish in July, and I could only imagine all of the carroty goodness that lurked in the soil. When would they be ready? A plump orange root peeked out from the soil, and one day I impulsively dug it up. To my disappointment, the carrot was about one inch wide and one inch long. When it comes to carrots, apparently it’s not the width. It’s the length.
Obviously I needed to be patient. So another two months flew by until today, when I decided today would be a good day to meet the carrots. Wait, are these… carrots? What a seriously odd-looking bunch they were, but they tasted and smelled potently like carrots, and that’s all that matters.
The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution. ~ Paul Cezanne
