Colourful Carrots

Carrots are full of carotene, fibre, vitamin K1, potassium and antioxidants.

Grow them in a sunny location with clean, soft well-drained soil (which has a pH of between 5.8 and 6.5) that doesn’t have any rocks, stones, or hard pieces so your carrots can grow nice and straight.

Carrots are always best grown from seed, sown directly into the garden bed. The reason is that they hate being transplanted – after transplanting, they often produce multiple shoots (called ‘forking’) instead of the one main root. Excessive amounts of organic matter can also cause carrots to ‘fork.’

Sow seeds in a neat row 5cm apart and 0.5cm deep and water well. If you find it too tricky to sow the small seeds you can buy carrot seed tape which does the hard work for you.

These days there are more than just orange carrots to grow. There are many old-fashioned varieties now available that come in white, yellow, red, purple, and black.

Better Earth Tip: Consistent watering is the key to good, sweet carrot development.

When to harvest?

Carrots take around 10 weeks to develop. And you want to be able to see the top of the carrot root just beneath the soil having a diameter of 2cm+.

Roasted Carrot Hummus

Ingredients

• 350g carrot, peeled & cut into 2cm pieces
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp paprika (+ extra to serve)
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 400g can chickpeas, drained, rinsed
• 1 tbs tahini
• 1 tbs lemon juice
• Salt & pepper
• Crackers & veggie sticks to serve
  
  

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (180°C fan-forced). Line a baking tray with baking paper.
2. Place carrot, cumin, paprika and half of the olive oil in a bowl. Toss to combine.
3. Transfer to prepared tray. Bake for 25 minutes or until carrot is golden and tender. Remove from oven. Set aside to cool.
4. Place carrot, chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice and remaining oil in a food processor. Process until smooth. Add a little water to mixture (a tablespoon at a time) until desired consistency is reached. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Transfer hummus to a small dish, sprinkle extra paprika on top to garnish. Serve with crackers and veggie sticks.
6. Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Enjoy!

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