The carrots will keep a while in cold storage. Some of the roots from the celery and fennel went into the chicken stock. Horseradish i just cut into chunks and froze...
Crazy fun inventing uses for homegrown crops. Never expected the massive roots and finding uses for them.

Stock is gorgeous and rich. Had a time keeping the smoker going with a wood side fire box. But managed and now have a good smokey stock brewing...

sleevendog, those look like the carrots I grew! I made the mistake of canning them all together, thinking they'd be sooooo pretty. Ahem. The purple ones lost all their color, which was soaked up by the white/yellow ones and everything in the jars just turned kind of a brownish color. Ah well, live and learn.

It's wet and snowy here today too, good luck with that wood stove, it's cold in front of the electric heater at the house!

It is fun to find ways to use up the harvest before it spoils, isn't it? A root cellar is a very good thing...

Annie

I am so envious of your rootcellars!!!! I have inside and unheated porch - no chilly rooms. Hard on plants as well as produce.

The carrots are beautiful. I harvested a last half dozen or so yesterday. Joebear the dog and I have been partaking of my patch since they got big enough. Next year I need another row.

My tuscan kale is tough but very sweet post frost. I love kale, garlic and carrots sauteed together in olive oil. I sautee chopped carrots, add crushed garlic. Add chopped kale and wilt. I don't usually add water but since my kale was so chewy I added a bit. Covered and cooked until tender. My favorite is when the carrots get slightly carmelized.... yum. Gradually my accent of bright carrots has become a larger and larger part of the dish.

We came back Sunday afternoon after a cold, cold, night. Buttoned up the farm, (catskill mnts) and put the garden to bed. Often do not go up until a warm late winter/early spring day. Or if dec has an above freezing weekend.
Forgot two things though. I have a large area of wild thyme i have let grow and forgot to harvest!!! grrr. And the last half dozen horseradish roots, double grrr.

Nice to know about the carrots varieties leeching their colors. Similar to overcooking purple/tri-color beans.

I'll do the pan roasting with garlic. Using the smaller carrots. Seems the best way to get the natural sugars and flavor. I do like to do a mixed harvest roasting in the oven, but often loose the carrots to over-cooking-roasting, unless carefully adding them very late to the tray.

Ah, i left behind a couple brussel sprout stalks and the last of the horseradish still had leaves that i wanted to put in soup today...i hope i shut the garden shed : (
Oh well. I have enough to deal with, lol.

Carrots will keep for months in the vegetable bin of the fridge, as will beets. I store my turnips right in the ground, packed with hay. I used to be able to do the same for the beets and carrots, but the voles have made that impossible.

lacey, that's how we always store parsnips too. Dad said they weren't good until they spent a winter in the garden, so we covered them well and dug them as we used them. I never tried that with turnips, so thanks.

When we finally get to live at the farm, I can do all those things again, until then, things get canned and a few things get put into the root cellar, which is also at the farm, so a bit inconvenient.

Annie

Made a nice soup. Carrot, ginger, roasted onion and garlic, stock, coconut milk.
Pint containers for the freezer. Decided we like puree soups as a side, a cup, with something else. Not too thick either. Coconut milk seems to freeze well. I can always stir in a bit of plain greek yogurt after re-heating.
Carrots rinsed, green tops pinched off, packed in 1lb bags with a paper towel. Stored in crisper drawer. Have about 8lbs left.
-These needed a rinse. They were packed in grocery brown bags, mud, tops and all right out of the ground. Needed a big sink of water to sort any damage. Some had critter nibbles on top.
These are small, 3-4 inches, some 5-6. They don't store as long, maybe january if they last that long. Good snacks fresh.

Not sure about the rest of the roots. Really muddy. Might just make a rich broth for a roasted garlic celery soup. Broth might need a good straining.

Beets are in the crisper but they won't last long. I've already made beet chips and i like them juiced.

Can't believe i am almost done with it, woohoo.
(can't believe i just received my first 2014 seed catalog...aahhhhck)

sleevendog, better seed catalogs than Christmas ones filled with overpriced and useless carp. I don't know how people even think of some of the things I've seen in catalogs lately.

I also like some pureed soups that can just be eaten or sipped from a cup, no spoon required.

Annie

Sleevendog, loving the photos and the different varieties of carrots. I don't grow many because of our nice, solid clay soil. We have some raised beds, but so far they're not designated for carrots.

Slightly off topic, I have realized that the older I get and as much as I love gardening, that I might love my garden best in the winter when the seed catalogs start funneling in and I can dream about it instead of actually doing it. I truly do love it, but it's a he** of a lot of work if you're preserving, too. And I'm okay with that, but I've decided that I'm also okay with garden down-time. :)

Btw, I have a sausage stuffer sitting on my counter, thanks to you, Annie, and Malna. Do you want to send a little change to help me pay for it? Ha, ha!

Ha. We had our own sausage the night before last. On 'Shipwreck'. (i need to write down that recipe). So love our sausage for a quick meal.

My carrots are down the middle of our raised tomato bed. They like the shade in august from the tomato vines. They do well and fuss free. All covered now and just need a double dig in spring. My soil is very rocky and heavy/dense. Raised beds work for our heavy soil as it is never trampled. Gets lighter every year. If we have a wet muddy spring, our beds are spared and ready to plant. Even if a river is running through it.

Cooking2day,
I'd send you my loose change, but I just spent it all on more casings and spices and a new knife.

By the way, I don't know if you sausage makers are aware of Len Poli's site - lots of recipes so you can start using that new stuffer! I usually tweak his recipes to our taste, but many times I just need a little inspiration.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sausage Recipes and Formulations

I got my first seed catalog this week, too. Unfortunately I won't be drooling over it this weekend as I still need to dig the potatoes and plant the garlic.

Those pics are so tempting! I love soup season.

Malna, I stumbled across his site just this past week. I found it very inspiring! We have a butcher shop nearby that has been around forever and I bought hog casing from them. I'm curious about prices. I got enough casing to stuff 60 lbs of sausage for $10. On the other hand, the sheep casings for breakfast links were $45 for 60 lbs worth of stuffing. Does that seem pretty much on target?

Sorry, cooking2day, I just saw your question.

Looks like you got a good deal on the hog casings. Sheep casings are considerably more expensive, and that sounds about right. I had sticker shock the first time I bought them, too.

Sleevendog, that's an interesting idea for planting carrots. I do have a lot of "wasted space" between my rows of tomatoes. Have to ponder that, since I'm doing the garden plan for next spring already.

I have heavy clay soil, too, so I've grown carrots in large containers with some success. Here we grow carrots in the fall and winter. I wasn't organized enough this year to get anything planted yet for the winter, other than broccoli. I still plan to get some spinach and lettuce planted, plus, of course, kale.

Way back when we did the cookalongs, there was a carrot themed cook along. Here's a link to that thread. Maybe you'll get some ideas from that thread.

Sally

Here is a link that might be useful: Carrot Cook along

Cooking2day, I'd love to send you spare change, except I put all mine into pig feed, so I can make sausage. (grin)

I get casings from Butcher-Packer, based on Detroit and price depends on size. I can get about that amount (the site says it will stuff between 45 and 60 pounds) in 20 mm sheep casings for $35.50, 22 mm sheep casings are $40.50, 24 mm sheep casings are $44.67, but the 24 mm sheep Vienna sausage casings are $60.50. The hog casings are anywhere from $3.50 for enough to stuff 25 pounds, all the way up to $25 or so for larger sausage. I'll attach a link.

malna, that's funny, Elery just found that site this morning and emailed it to me, since he uses an iPod and I do better with the desktop and the BIG screen, LOL. I'm old and set in my ways, plus I can print from mine!

I still need to try sleevendog's sausage recipe that I saved from the past thread, the one for boudin.

Here I'm lucky. I have some sandy soil and some red clay but largely I have a nice loam, a mix of everything. Every fall I add a nice layer of cow manure and stuff from the chicken coop, along with whatever kitchen compost has been mixed in. I mulch plants with old hay, straw, chopped leaves, etc. The manure layer sits on top and gets worked in every spring before planting. I don't use any chemical fertilizers/ etc and the only problems I really encounter is potato bugs, not much wilt or other plant problems. Well, unless you count purslane and lambs quarter as problems, but I react by eating those!

Annie