Mmmm Carrots

The garden has finished...when I went there on Monday I could see that there had been a freeze and the plants were all wilted.  The remaining tomatoes were mostly soft and damaged...aww...too bad...hehe...

 

On Wednesday we went there and took down the fence, pulled out the dead plants and dug the carrots.  I had heard that the best time to pull them was after a light freeze.  I knew they were big based on how large around the tops were but I had no idea how large they were!  

 

 

They sure are fat carrots!  I thought that they looked like sugar beets instead of carrots! 

 

There were also a few oddballs like this mutant...I think that is a result of inadequate thinning of the plants when they were small. 

Since storing carrots is not the easiest task we decided to freeze them right away.  I researched it and the sources said that the best way to store them is to fill a box with sand and bury them and store the box in a cool, dry place.  Ummm...OK...not happening.  We don't have room for any more boxes in any of our storage areas!  Freezing them was not too difficult although it did involve that blasted blanching process again to kill bacteria and alot of chopping.  I love cooked carrots so I will enjoy eating them throughout the winter. 

For some reason, our back yard garden did not freeze, probably because it is more sheltered.  It doesn't look like it is going to freeze again in the near future and in fact it is going to be like summer which kind of annoys me because I hate the way bugs behave in fall.  It seems like bees are everywhere, and the newest treat is box elder bugs.  They are all over the exterior of the house, trying to find a warm spot for winter.  I grew up in a farm house surrounded by box elder trees so I know these bugs all too well and I hate them.  They don't bite, or try to get into food so they could be worse but they just seem to be everywhere and are so annoying.  They are black with an orange stripe on their backs and very creepy looking. 

 

Here are a lovely pair lurking by the mailbox.  All I can say is that these bastards better stay the F out of my house!  I will not put up with them and will not hesitate to place my cat nearby so he can pretend he is a predator and bat and play with them if they get in around the door!