Carrots and cats

First of all, a technology conundrum.  Blogger claims it is detecting an unsupported browser but I use Firefox 11.0 which Blogger says is compatible with my MacOS 10.7.4.  I will never be a tech guru, mostly due to the fact that I don't care that much.  But I do get frustrated by the increasing number of compatibility issues.  My cynical self says its all in the name of making money.  Along a similar vein, wanting to see the Olympics and not having a television I was hoping to view some of the events online.  Yes, you are able to do this, for FREE, as long as you are a regular TimeWarner subscriber. Fail.

But on to the more pressing issue of carrots.  I finally was able weed and thin our carrot bed this morning. It was long overdue.  Carrots don't really enjoy weeds (apparently the weeds really love the carrots), and they need to be spaced at least 1 to 2 inches from their nearest neighbor in order to thrive, but it is impossible to sow them this way (at least by hand).  Yes, this means a lot of really teeny-weeny carrots get composted, but I was able to pull out a couple dozen baby carrots which we will enjoy in salads or lightly steamed for the next week or so. 

 

For the first 10 years after their introduction, I thought the baby carrots one sees in the grocery store were actually just that.  Small carrots, pulled from the garden in the earlier part of the summer.  I was so dismayed to learn that the supermarket "baby carrots" are just cutouts from deformed mature carrots.   You can find the story of the manufactured baby carrot here (who knew that the U.K had a carrot museum!).  I suppose making "baby" carrots is better than throwing away tons and tons of imperfectly shaped, but perfectly edible carrots each year.  But I still won't buy them at the store because I feel like they have been overly processed.  This is not a particularly rational point of view, but I am the first to admit I am a bit of a local food snob.  

As far as our own baby carrots, they will probably be consumed in the next several days, but if not I will blanch, dice and freeze them to use later in the year for soups and casseroles.  

Finally, my darling husband took this picture of the laziest living things on our farm...the cats.  They may kill a mouse here or there but usually anybody visiting the farm can find them on this chair, lounging away, watching the world go by (or just completely comatose).  That's Leia looking up at the camera wondering who had the gall to wake her up from her nap.  Luke is in the middle and Chewbacca is determined not to show her face.