BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?

Subject: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: gnu
Date: 08 Apr 10 - 01:43 PM

How do you keep carrots fresh for an extended period of time?

My Newfy buddy keeps his carrots in buckets of sand in a cold cellar.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: naughtyforty
Date: 08 Apr 10 - 02:05 PM

I keep mine in the salad drawer of the fridge on a fruit & veg cushion - keeps them for about three weeks!!

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: bobad
Date: 08 Apr 10 - 02:19 PM

We keep ours in damp sand in a root cellar, sawdust also works.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: Rustic Rebel
Date: 08 Apr 10 - 02:38 PM

My carrots dug in the fall last all winter.
I wash them good. Cut the top green off down to the end (get all the green). Dry them completely. Bag them in a high density bag like the bags you get in a store, and I put them in the fridge.

They have to be dry or they start to grow or rot. If you notice moisture take them out and air dry them again.

This for me, works better than sand because they seem to last longer and stay sweet, juicy and crisp for months.

Peace.
Rustic

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: gnu
Date: 08 Apr 10 - 02:39 PM

Never heard of one, naughtyforty... saw this http://www.lakeland.co.uk/F/product/3528

I got sommat that would do the same, much cheaper... plastic scrubbing pads.

I bought two ten pound bags of carrots last fall for 77p Canuck each.
I don't have a cold cellar (root cellar). So, as I had a heavy duty sweatshirt that was coming apart at the seams, I cut it into large strips. I made sure the carrots were dry and then wrapped them in the sweatshirt strips, placed them in a plastic grocery bag twisted shut and set them in my fridge.

I just used three carrots that were in good condition... after about four months in the fridge.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: gnu
Date: 08 Apr 10 - 02:45 PM

Thanks Rustic.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: Penny S.
Date: 08 Apr 10 - 02:50 PM

No cellar, no fridge. Alternative ideas? Oh, no space in the garden for a clamp.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: gnu
Date: 08 Apr 10 - 03:02 PM

Rustic... when you say "get all the green", do you mean actuually cutting into the flesh of the carrot?

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: bobad
Date: 08 Apr 10 - 03:12 PM

The fridge thing should work too, we ate some beets yesterday that were harvested last fall and kept in the fridge in a plastic bag, making sure they weren't too wet. They were as good as new.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: Cuilionn
Date: 08 Apr 10 - 05:44 PM

A barrel in a dark, cool corner, carrots layered with sand and dry leaves. That worked for friends of ours in mid-coast Maine. They were pulling crisp, sweet carrots from the barrel all winter.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 Apr 10 - 10:14 PM

Cool, dry, and dark are the keys to good root cellaring, or so my Grandpa always said. He planted and kept over winter potatoes, carrots, turnips, and parsnips -- that I'm away of. He may also have kept onions, but I don't remember how if he did.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: bobad
Date: 08 Apr 10 - 10:20 PM

We keep potatoes, carrots, turnips, beets, onions and cabbage in our root cellar.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 03:06 AM

Chop carrots into batons and pickle in vinegar.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: Ed T
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 08:27 AM

The odd thing is the "baby carrots" one buys in a supermarket are large reject carrots that are cut into small shapes.Then they charge a premium price, a profit that they don't pass down to the farmer.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: gnu
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 09:44 AM

Baby cut carrots. And they certainly do jack up the price but they still sell 'em. I can't imagine there could be so many people who do not have the time to peel and chop carrots.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: Ed T
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 09:52 AM

It does not have to be this precise:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31uWUY0kC7U

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: Ed T
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 09:55 AM

More like this:
http://www.ifood.tv/recipe/how_to_cut_a_carrot

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: Ed T
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 10:02 AM

On a related topic, what's the best way to store turnips, when one does not have a root cellar? I have had some success with covering them in plastic wrap to avoid them from dehydrating.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 10:13 AM

The best way to keep any vegetable is to pay the rent on an expensive apartment, buy it designer clothes, the best wines, and in general treat it..oh, wait. Sorry, my mind was wondering why anyone would want a "kept vegetable."

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: bobad
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 10:13 AM

The usual way to keep turnips is to give them a coat of paraffin and store in a cool area. We keep them in damp sand with varying success, some years they keep well and other years they rot.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 10:44 AM

Here's something I learned from the Joy of Cooking.

Keep carrots away from apples, or the carrots will turn bitter.

It's true.

I don't garden, so I cut the tops off carrots and keep them in the fridge in the bag they came in. I never buy those 'baby' carrots.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 05:42 PM

"Keep carrots away from apples, or the carrots will turn bitter. "

Actually apples will do all sorts of things to other fruit/veges stored near them - they give off acetylene - a gas that used to a banana ripening agent. Put one in a brown paper bag with many things, bananas, pineapples avocados - all sorts of things, just try it - and it speeds up the ripening process.

Apples are best kept away from many things, but then other stuff may give it off too.

Hmmm An apple a day keeps the doctor away - if you don't have apples, but a welding cylinder....

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: Rowan
Date: 10 Apr 10 - 12:39 AM

The usual way to keep turnips is to give them a coat of paraffin and store in a cool area.

Yet another possible example of the common language dividing people. When I hear "paraffin" from anyone north of the equator I think of what in Oz is called kerosene (if it's liquid) or mineral wax (if it's not), neither of which I'd want on my carrots.

So, bobad, what is it you mean by paraffin? I presume it's a vegetable oil.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: Smokey.
Date: 10 Apr 10 - 01:23 AM

Formaldehyde.

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: Micca
Date: 10 Apr 10 - 04:46 AM

Ft, I think you mean Ethylene(Ethene) NOT Acetylene(Ethyne)!!!!!! it is especially good for ripening tomatos. if at the end of summer you have green or only part ripened Toms, pop them in a plastic food bag with an apple on a windowsill and watch them blush!!

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 10 Apr 10 - 05:21 AM

The bags that Birds Eye supply them in are adequte for protecting carrots in MY freezer ! Same for Peas (AND Mushrooms)

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: bobad
Date: 10 Apr 10 - 07:17 AM

"So, bobad, what is it you mean by paraffin? I presume it's a vegetable oil."

I suppose the proper nomenclature is paraffin wax but the common usage here in North America is simply paraffin. It is removed from the turnip (rutabaga, swede) along with the peel.

From Wikipedia:

Paraffin wax

    * Candle-making
    * Coatings for waxed paper or cloth
    * Food-grade paraffin wax:
          o Shiny coating used in candy-making; although edible, it is nondigestible, passing right through the body without being broken down
          o Coating for many kinds of hard cheese, like Edam cheese
          o Sealant for jars, cans, and bottles
          o Chewing gum additive

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 10 Apr 10 - 07:45 AM

Opps - sorry Micca - looks like there ARE intelligent learned people here on Mudcat ... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: Rowan
Date: 11 Apr 10 - 01:34 AM

Thanks, bobad; the notion of food grade mineral wax hadn't penetrated my grey matter.

And, in Foolestroupe's defence, he may have been confused by the use of acetylene to induce ripening in pineapple plants. I don't know if it's still done but, in times past, a small granule of calcium carbide would be put in the head of the plant; water would react with it and produce acetylene.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 11 Apr 10 - 07:26 PM

The Fooles Troupe are easily confused ...

:-)

Subject: RE: BS: How do you 'keep' carrots?
From: LilyFestre
Date: 11 Apr 10 - 11:06 PM

For questions like this, I like to visit: www.homesteadingtoday.com

Michelle