Growing your own vegetables to enjoy through the winter is one of life’s most simple pleasures!
After many years of trial and error, I have figured out an extremely easy way to harvest and store your garden carrots, keeping them wonderfully fresh and tender throughout the winter. I also use this method for parsnips!
Hello Everyone,
Wherever you are in the world, I hope you are enjoying the bounty of your garden and a beautiful fall.
I have started growing my carrots in large containers full of sand and compost. The results have been quite impressive. It makes growing carrots and other root crops even easier. You end up with lovely big carrots that are easy to harvest, require way less weeding, and are easier to store longer into the winter. But I will leave that for another post to tell you all about the sand-compost thing.
OK, let’s get into everything, carrot!
When to Harvest Carrots and Most Other Root Crops
Carrots and most root crops should be harvested after a good frost or two. The plants will start to send their stored sugars and nutrients down to the roots to be stored for the winter. Making your carrots sweet and delicious.
How to Harvest Your Carrots for the Best Results
So, after a good frost has hit, pick a nice sunny day and head out to the carrot patch to start harvesting. Remove your carrots from the soil, knock off as much soil as you can, and then lay them out in the sun to dry for a few hours. This will make it easier to get the remaining soil off and harden up the skins a bit.
After a few hours, head back over to where you have laid out your carrots. I usually take 3–4 different containers out with me so I can sort my carrots by size right out in the garden as I process them. Less double handling the better!
Brush off as much of the remaining soil as possible, break the tops off for the compost pile, and sort the carrots by size as you go.
If you have a lot of carrots like I do, you can harvest them a day at a time, which I find makes the whole process really easy and relaxing.
Now That You Have All These Carrots, What Do You Do With Them
Before you go to bed at night, clean out both your sinks and let the water run till it gets nice and cold. Then put your carrots into the sinks and cover them with cold water.
If you want to keep the different sizes separate, you can also use large bowls or other containers to soak the carrots in overnight.
In the morning, most of the remaining soil will have fallen off, and the carrots will have absorbed the cold water overnight, leaving them wonderfully crisp and tender.
Rub off the remaining dirt as you remove them from the water; give them a quick rinse if needed. As you wash them off, look for any cuts, bug damage, or bruises. You don’t want them to spoil in storage. Put these carrots aside to be used in the near future for a hearty soup or carrot cake.
Transfer the washed carrots to a clean bath towel already placed on the counter.
Cut the tops off; this step is really important as a lot of dirt and grim gets stuck around where the leaves grow out. This area is often where rot will start. Your carrots will also start trying to put out new tops over the winter if they are left on. Which takes away from their texture, flavor, and storability. The easiest thing is to just chop them off! 🙂
How to Store Your Carrots for the Best Long-Term Results
Once the chopping is done, put the carrots into large plastic bags or large glass containers to be stored in the fridge for the winter.
Carrots like to be stored in a cool, dark, humid environment, but not too humid! If using plastic bags, leave the top open a little bit to let out excess moisture, as the plastic does not breathe. I also like to put a piece of paper towel into the bag to soak up extra moisture.
As long as the vast majority of the soil is off the carrots after you wash them and you have removed any compromised characters, they will store well for a long time in the fridge like this. I also usually remove any forked carrots and use them right away. Soil always seems to get stuck in between the knobbly bits and is hard to remove.
Storing them in glass containers in the fridge is my favorite. It seems to keep the humidity just right. The plastic bag option works well too; you just have to inspect them every once in a while and replace the paper towel when it gets soaked.
The larger the carrots, the longer and better they store. I take all my small carrots and make refrigerator-dilled carrots pickles with them. Just another super simple and delicious way to store your carrots into the winter and beyond!
I hope you get as much satisfaction and delight as I do from growing, preserving, and eating your carrot bounty, and hopefully this post on How to Harvest and Store Carrots the Easy Way has made it even more enjoyable for you!
Have a fabulous day!
Violet
