Storing Carrots in the Ground

We may have planted an excessive amount of carrots this year.  We sure do like carrots.  But, we still have almost a whole 12 x 4 foot bed of them in the ground.  And we've eaten our fair share already.

Unsure about where we were going to store all these carrots Matt decided to just leave them in the ground for storage.

Matt placed black trash bags filled with leaves (which he had collected to save for his compost pile) across the whole bed--right over the carrot tops.  He then covered the whole thing with a sheet of plastic, creating a low hoop tunnel of sorts.  He pinned the edges down with bricks.  Its Matt's version of a vegetable clamp.

So far it has been fabulous.

The carrots stay fresh and delicious and are harvested only as needed.  If you ask me, there is something special about the way a carrot tastes the day it is picked.  You can tell it is still alive.  As a result, the crisper drawers of the fridge are not overflowing with mountains of carrots.

We dug carrots Thanksgiving morning.  We're hoping to be able to dig fresh carrots on Christmas morning, too.

IF the system works to keep the carrots good through this record breaking cold spell we're having that is.  The high, and I repeat HIGH, for the last three days being -12, -8, and -2 degrees F.  That is pretty cold for Billings.   Matt dug 12 pounds of carrots and our last pound of leeks ahead of the storm.

So, we'll just see what the rest of the carrots look like when it get back up into the 30s the next couple weeks.  I am crossing my fingers....

This photo was taken one day after all the rest in this post.  That lump at the center-right of the frame is the plastic covered carrots.