I have never liked carrots. Throughout my childhood, I would eat all sorts of kid-unfriendly vegetables, but not the traditionally kid-friendly carrot. I hated them in all forms (except in cake). My parents used to force me to eat my age in carrots (until I reached double digit ages and they showed mercy by stopping the count at 10). Now, my more mature adult self will deign to eat carrots...but only if they are slathered in butter and cooked until they are total mush.
Despite my passionate dislike for this vegetable, we wanted to try growing them this year, and it has been a very exciting process because of all of the suspense. As we obviously can't see the carrots growing underground and only have their leafy tops to go on, the anticipation of what our carrots look like has been building for weeks. We finally cracked yesterday and picked our first carrot.
David let me do the picking honors. I selected the largest one, though it turned out to still be rather small.
Victory! A photo of me laughing with our carrot. (The funny part not captured on film was that I lost my balance and almost fell over while pulling this tiny thing out of the ground.) This carrot looked a little sci-fi in the sense that it still had roots at its tip, and it obviously needed more time to grow. We will not pick any more for a little while so that they can get bigger.
David's best imitation of Bugs Bunny.
And now for the most unexpected twist during our carrot picking ceremony: I LOVED the carrot. LOVED IT. It was sweeter than any other raw carrot I have ever eaten, and I could have eaten 10 of them easily! And so, let this be a lesson to parents of cute little small children refusing to eat vegetables. The solution is simple - start planting them in your backyard! I promise your kids will come around.
1 comment:
Planting them is a very good idea! As the parent to one veggie-spurning kid, I will file this tip away for use later. What kid wouldn't want to eat something he or she cared for, tended, and picked?
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