Happy Harvest

Though the loss of the bees was very sad, not everything about this winter was a disaster. For example, we had a large bed of winter carrots that happily spent the season underground. In this case, the warm February weather brought on an early thaw and allowed us to access them throughout the spring.

But as we were about to revamp their bed for a new planting of cabbages by April, it was time to dig the rest of them up: 

Carrots that are harvested after enduring freezing temperatures are very sweet, so these are delicious roasted plain or diced into soups. At this point they are purely cooking carrots, though, as their crunch is long gone thanks to the weird free/thaw cycles this year.

So we had a mini carrot festival this month, enjoying them in all kinds of dishes. Ginger Carrot Soup was a favorite:

To make it, Kirk sweated some leeks (another vegetable that we overwintered underground) in butter and added rough-cut carrot chunks to the soup pot, along with slices of fresh ginger and chicken stock. It’s seasoned with salt, pepper, and curry powder. Once the carrots are cooked through, all you have to do is puree it for a yummy, smooth soup. I liked it with salty croutons to balance out some of the sweetness.

Also on the menu was a classic carrot cake with cream cheese frosting:

You probably already have your own favorite recipe for this, but we used the one in our very old but always trustworthy Betty Crocker Cookbook. Yum!