Saturday, May 21, 2011

Friday Night Party

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So how exactly does a gardener party on a Friday night? They spend their whole night harvesting, blanching, and freezing carrots that's how. That is how I spent my Friday night. I know it sounds lame, but that is how I roll these days.

I harvested 238 carrots out of one 4X4 bed. I had planted 256 seeds, so that is a pretty good germination rate. The plants were at 90 days and I think they were pretty much done growing. I had some really nice sized ones, but I also had several that were too small. I don’t know if I planted them too close together or if they didn’t get enough sun. Overall I am pleased with the results. This is what square foot gardening is all about, maximum harvest in the minimum amount of space.

It took me about four hours to harvest, clean, cut, blanch, and freeze all the carrots. I need to get some kind of cutter or food processor because cutting that many by hand got old really fast. I filled 12 quart size freezer bags. I think if I could have grown more of the larger carrots instead of so many small ones I would have easily filled 25 bags. That is going to be my goal for next time; to fill 25 bags out of one 4X4 bed. I put 15-20 ounces of carrots per bag because that is about the size of a can of vegetables. One standard sized can is 15 ounces.

I am really tired, and off to bed. Tomorrow brings a new day and the opportunity to plant my eggplant seeds where the carrots were. I am just living the gardener dream.

Carrot Harvest - Danvers #126

Carrots filled one side of my kitchen sink

A batch ready for bagging

Final Results
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5 comments:

Annie*s Granny said...

Lovely, lovely carrot harvest. Well done!

Kris said...

Thank you, I thought what is she doing up so late, but then I remember you are 3000 miles and 3 time zones away. Have a good night.

Unknown said...

Congratulations on a great carrot harvest.

Cristy said...

Wow! congratulations on getting so many carrots. I am so hoping my SFG will pay off for me this year. My grand total yield so far... 3 green beans, small ones at that. (In my defense, there is NO rain. I am watering, but the rain is just not here.)

Kris said...

GrafixMuse, Thanks I appreciate it. Hopefully I can work on growing them larger.

Cristy - I am with you on the rain. I have the same problem. There is no rain and it is hot as you know what. Luckily with SFG it is easy to water. Good luck to you.