Fancy Pants & Other Wacky Carrots

Determined not to let the carrots get too big for canning (like we did the kohlrabi and beets), I started to pick them Monday night. Having no illusions of getting them all (there are a lot), I looked for bigger ones and ones to pull to thin out what was left.

I was terribly impressed with how the earth is literally cracking along the carrot row. Convincing proof of how powerful slight but persistent pressure can be.

Because you can't see the carrot, every pull was a surprise. Is it a long straight one (unlikely) or is it another wacky wild one? Yup, another wacko! Our hard, compacted soil is causing the carrots to look like alien mutants. I'm sure George Lucas studied carrots before making some of his Star Wars aliens.

It's hard not to see people shapes. Of course, not idealized Vogue or GQ people shapes; more like everyday people "misshapes." The one on the far right outdid the rest by not only having legs and arms, it also had a bellybutton! See:
And of course, base nature that I have, I found other anatomical parts besides bellybuttons:
And I'm sure I don't even need to actually write a segue to this photo of the longest and shortest carrots in the batch:
Not overly impressive, I'm afraid. Troy assures me it will get better after we've been able to work the soil for a few years. And maybe the ones I left in the ground will be bigger by the time I get to picking them.

Peeling these misshapen carrots was an adventure. Troy helped me with that on Tuesday night. We cut them up into sticks because it seemed easier than cutting them into disks. It's been a lesson in accepting veggies that don't look like the "perfect" super store variety. I'm sure their machines would not be able to deal with any of our carrots! (Or maybe they would all be made into those fake "baby" carrots.)

I'm not a fan of veggies and fruits that are bred to look good/uniform and travel well. (Rather than taste...what a thought.) Unfortunately, even though these carrots don't have anything in the looks department, they're not particularly tasty either. (They're ok, but I would like a little sweeter taste.) We're going to try a different variety next year.

This afternoon I did manage to peel and chop the rest and get them canned.

Eleven pints waiting for Troy to try in his lunch. I'm not really into canned carrots, but it's amazing what you eat after you put the work into it. (Like beets.) Plus they do have the super-easy prep thing going for them. There's nothing like canned veggies if you need dinner in a hurry. Can we say heat and serve?