Nothing like a weird carrot to get the kids interested in the garden — and to get at least one of my kids excited about eating a carrot:
I’ve never been able to pick a carrot in the middle of February before. I planted these seeds back in October, I think. They’ve been growing slowly in one of the raised beds and the tops looked so good I just had to pull up a few.
Unfortunately, they aren’t too flavorful and the texture is a little tough.
That didn’t stop my older boy from taking this one from me when I brought it in the house and immediately washing it in the bathroom sink (the only one he can reach) and asking if he could eat it right then. I told him we’d have to get some photos first.
Well, everthing comes back to Star Wars in our house. His first impression of what the funky carrot looked like? Yoda’s hand. Here it is with cloak and light saber.
Our interpretations varied: Yoda hand, creature with a tail (my husband’s first interpretation), one of those wild codpieces worn by remote tribesmen in New Guinea (my first thought) and “I don’t wike cawwots” (my almost-3 year old whose diet mainly consists of air and spinach hummus — I think he thought it was going to end up on his plate).
It didn’t taste as interesting as it looked; he got through about half of it before he decided it wasn’t so great:
But there were some really delicious pickin’s from the garden this week: tons of spinach (we shared with friends and made a huge salad with mizuna and a bit of watercress thrown in), collards, russian red kale, leeks, and tiny little beets and beet greens.
The collards are perfect right now. The green worms that had been feasting on the leaves are gone! That’s one of those small things in life that make me really happy — to see a plant come back from near-destruction (especially when those gross worms were the culprits).
Asheville Yard Farmer 