Real Baby Carrots

I'm trying to remember the last time we had carrots. It must have been some time over the winter that we ate the last ones we had — maybe February? Those are the breaks when you're (irrationally?) committed to seasonal eating: the ups and downs of feast and famine.

So when I was out in the garden thinning the carrots today, they looked (and smelled!) so tasty that I couldn't bear to compost them. Instead, I saved the nicest ones: 


These are what real baby carrots look like, by the way. Well, almost. This photo was taken after I twisted off the leafy tops:


So the bucket of greens and too-tiny roots went straight to the chickens. Next to cherry tomatoes, carrot tops are their favorite treat.

The big baby carrots were washed and trimmed and added to our dinner salad:


They are tiny, so oh-so-delicious — especially after several months without carroty goodness on my plate.  Plus it gave a nice vitamin boost to our summery hot dogs (which, it should be obvious to Lehigh Valley readers, are straight from a Yocco's Doggie Pack). Not that salad is a traditional Yocco's side dish or anything, but we didn't have any pierogies handy. 

Anyway, the point is, don't chuck your carrot thinning when you can eat them up instead!

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