Lets talk carrots.

I just pulled the last of the fall planting from our garden before the cold front arrives.
I figured if I don’t like the single digits the carrots wouldn’t either. Hopefully if you grew them this year you did better than me in getting them tucked away for the winter before now.

While you can overwinter carrots in the garden with a hefty layer of mulch, once the tops die down it can be a game of hide and seek to find those carrots in the dirt. I don’t know about you but the thought of digging thru cold dirt to make dinner doesn’t seem like an appealing idea.
Once you have your carrots pulled comes the decision of how you want to store them.

If you have the space in the refrigerator, wrapping them in paper towels stored in a ziplock bag works well. The down side is: cost of said paper towels.
Next option is you can store in damp sand or wood shavings.
I chose the latter using fine pine shavings to store our carrots. (Do not use cedar.)

You do not want to wash the dirt off but if like me you have clay soil that loves to adhere to said carrots, take the time to scrap as much as you can with your hands. Then cut the top greens off down to less that 1/4 in.

start with a layer of shaving or damp sand, layer the carrots where they are not touching, adding another layer of shavings/sand until the container is full and topped off with the last layer of material.

Now where to store the carrots. Find a cold area such as in a basement or unheated garage. If you don’t have those, under a bed or tucked in a coat closet will suffice.
Check on them every few weeks and if it seems they are going bad- can, freeze , or dehydrate them.