What's Up, Doc?

   Carrots, carrots, carrots.   

   I had hoped to be able to harvest the root vegetables during a dry spell, but this is turning out to be another wet, cool September.  I finally bit the bullet on the weekend and processed my first batch of carrots.

   The forecast calls for more drizzle and freezing temperatures tonight, so this morning I pulled the rest of the carrots and decided to wash and chop them so they can be dehydrated.  While most of the carrots were grown in a raised bed with sandy soil, another bunch grew in the North garden, where the soil is much stickier (clay).  Faced with buckets of carrots to clean, I decided to wash them the way a former manager told me her mother did it - in the washing machine, on the "delicate" cycle!  

   It worked like a charm.  At risk of triggering an anxiety attack or horrified disapproval in my mother, I will post pictures of the first wash (yep, that's MUD in the washing machine), the rinse, and the final result.

   I just finished processing them (trimming the ends, peeling the ones that needed it, and slicing them).  It took me more than four hours.  The fridge is packed with storage containers full of carrot slices.  We'll have to blanch them over a period of days, as the dehydrator can only hold so much! 

   My hands are dry and orange and my back hurts, but I know I'll be glad I put the time in now when it is mid-winter and I want to put together a soup or casserole in 10 minutes.

   Here is the first batch of carrots I did on the weekend.  I loved the mixed colours.  :-)