Yep, they're called Finger carrots because they look like fingers. Doh!
These ones of mine are of the variety "Amsterdam Forcing 3". It's a variety specially bred for growing long and thin. As I mentioned the other day, they have been grown as a follow-on crop in the 35-litre plastic containers which formerly held new potatoes. Two pots were sown on July 6th and the third was sown on July 29th.
I think I sowed the carrots a bit too thickly, and didn't thin them, so many of them are thus too weak and weedy to produce anything useable, but by picking carefully I'll be able to muster a worthwhile number from my 3 pots. Look at these beauties:
Keys for scale purposes
I terms of aftercare, I did practically nothing to them - just watered them occasionally. I think if I had grown them earlier in the year I would have covered them with Enviromesh, like my maincrop carrots, but sowing later has avoided the Fly.
Washing them shows that although they have green shoulders that will need to be removed before cooking, there is no slug or Carrot Root Fly damage at all - despite having been grown without protection of any sort.
Carrots like these are a special delicacy - tender and sweet - best served fairly plain (possibly raw) and definitely not thrown into a stock or casserole! They don't need to be peeled either, just lightly scrubbed to remove the soil from them.
This first batch was served boiled and then tossed in melted butter and sprinkled with chopped Parsley. I think if I had a lot of them I would put them in a bowl on the kitchen worktop, for snacking on, but I know they wouldn't last long in our household!
