A Tale of Tiny Carrots and Monster Garlic
Or, the surprise and whimsy of pulling food from the ground.
I ate the smallest carrots I’d ever seen at Sean Brock’s restaurant Husk, back when we had one here in Greenville. RIP—it was my favorite.
The thinnings decorated a shallow bowl of pimento cheese, and they were no thicker than a pencil, no longer than a finger.
They were delightful in their sweet and miniature form. Ordinary carrots would not have been memorable alongside that exceptional pimento cheese, except that it was the first (and only) time I’d ever seen “thinnings” on a restaurant menu. For that reason, and their deep sweetness, I still remember them.
Carrot seeds are so small, and as they prefer to be direct sown, it’s famously difficult to get them spaced just right. You inevitably end up with tight groupings, and if you want full-grown carrots, you pull a few to give the strong ones more space. You can do it early, and have no cute baby carrots. Or, you can wait a bit, and get adorable, tasty baby carrots.
The thing is, you never know exactly what you’re going to get. It’s the whole “art + science” aspect of gardening that I love. That big one on the left looked just about the same as the others from the tops.
Pulling food from the ground, as opposed to picking it from vines, shrubs or trees, has this surprise factor that makes it fun.
Another example:
I’ve been holding out as long as I could to harvest my garlic, as it’s been so wet for weeks and weeks. Garlic cures and stores better if it dries out a bit in the ground before you pull it up. It had been a little drier for a few days, and the softneck was starting to fall over. About half as many leaves had dried up as were still going strong. I decided to pull a tester up.
I was shocked! These are the largest garlic bulbs I’ve ever grown.
Nothing about the tops looked any different from recent years, but I’m not exaggerating when I say this haul probably weighs double what I got out of the same number of seed cloves last year.
My kids were so excited. I thought I was just pulling a tester, but we harvested the lot. I pulled up one hardneck, and I got the opposite surprise: It looks like it needs a least another week, maybe more. From the stems, you would never know.
The nice thing about many root crops is that they will forgive you for pulling them up, showing disappointed in their size, and putting them back in the ground. (Radishes probably won’t, but carrots and garlic don’t get offended).
I’ll leave off with two tips from this growing season:
Carrots: The “board” method really works. I kept seeing people on Instagram (and maybe Monty Don) recommend watering the soil, then using a board to create a divot in a straight line, then sprinkling your seeds on that line and replacing the board. Hand water everyday and check under the board after to see if you have sprouts, and when you do, remove the board and proceed.
It seemed unnecessary… but I tried it, and I can say with 100% confidence it led to more carrots.
Garlic: The only thing I did differently with my garlic this year was soak them overnight in alcohol the day before I planted them. I learned this tip from Keene Garlic, who I have been buying seed cloves from for a few years.
Now, I’m sure the weather also played a role; it seemed much more favorable than the year before. But the health and size of the bulbs, and the size of the roots when I pulled them suggests that soak made a big difference.