Carrots, Snowfall & Parsnips

“Carrots, Snowfall & Parsnips”, now there is a title you don’t see every day, but it sums up today. We awoke to a weather change. Snow.

Coronation Park, Red Deer, Alberta

This is what it looked like just around the corner from home…….

Waskasoo Creek, Red Deer, Alberta

….and this.

And once I had recovered from the depressing realization that winter is upon us I thought “Oh, no, the carrots and parsnips!”.

Carrots and parsnips all covered with snow.

Now I know I do push the growing season a little. I planted the seeds in the ground WAY before May long weekend, and I always leave the carrots in the ground until the last possible moment. Having what seems to be a 30 second growing season in Alberta, one has to make the most of it.

One year I even tried to grow carrots in our basement under a grow light in winter (true story!). It was a disaster. My husband also had some reservations saying “People probably don’t think you are growing carrots with that grow light being on all the time. Maybe this isn’t a good idea!”

But back to today .Today was definitely “Time To Pick the Veggies Day”. So with shovel in hand out popped the carrots and parsnips out of the dirt.

With a bit of washing they ended up looking really yummy.

They will be even better tomorrow when we roast them with a little rosemary and olive oil. One of my daughters loves parsnips so she is pretty excited about what came out of the ground.

We also unearthed one little surprise…………….

it appears to be something half carrot and half parsnip…………..does that make it a “carsnip” or a “parrot”? I don’t dare show the kids it or they will fight over it and I will have to slice the poor little veggie into five EQUAL pieces.

That’s the end of “Alberta” gardening for the year, but I still have beets, carrots and radishes in the ground out on the coast………plus one more tree to plant (an apple!).