A Rabbit's Feast

I'm finally getting around to preparing for planting my spring garden. Even though it's barely the beginning of March, since the winter was so mild, planting sooner is probably better. We might have another really hot dry summer like last year, it was really hard on the plants. I typically just let the carrots that I plant stay in the ground until I'm ready to use them. The Danvers that I plant don't seem to get too woody as they get bigger and the flavor is always so sweet and delicious. But in order to plant corn, I had to take them up and I had so many more carrots than I expected.

These completely filled my deep kitchen sink. These things have got to be the most labor intensive vegetable to store long term that I've grown so far:

1. Pull out of the ground
2. Tear off the tops
3. Wash
4. Wash again
5. Wash another time
6. Trim the ends
7. Peel...soooo time consuming!
8. Wash again
9. Cut into circles, sticks, or cubes
10. Blanch
11. Cool
12. Pack
13. Freeze

If I had the energy I might have frozen them individually on sheets and then packed for easier usage, but my feet were killing me by the time I got to the blanching. I kept some unprocessed past peeling and washing so I could make carrot cake today, and it is delicious! If you have any favorite carrot recipes, I'd love to know I've got 8 quart bags packed with carrots in my freezer!