Candy Carrots

When carrots have experienced several light frosts the remaining starches turn to sugars. We have trialed many varieties and grow the carrots in the late fall that are the sweetest during cooler weather. The children call them "candy carrots". You have never had such a sweet juicy treat until you've tried our "candy carrots". We eat them in school lunches, snacks, when traveling and even for breakfast.

The carrots need to be planted in late July or early August to reach the appropriate size before the ground freezes.

Kelp, rock powders and liberal compost all enhance the flavors of the carrots. We typically use a strip of compost 6 inches wide and 4 inches deep for planting. We plant directly into the compost and plant 2-3 rows 2 inches apart. No other fertilizer is needed, especially nitrogen.

(Never any chemical fertilizers.)

We harvested about 700 pounds of carrots in November from our late summer planting and they have been simply amazing. It was a very dry year and we had rains at just the right time to keep the carrots going. The compost holds 8 times its weight in water, so that probably help too.

The earliest carrots can be planted right after the ground thaws in the spring.