Seeing Orange

Fall has arrived and I'm seeing orange.No, I'm not talking about pumpkins. Although I do find the sight of them heart warming. (Seriously, what is it about pumpkins that fills a soul with such delight?) Instead, I'm talking about carrots.

I've been procrastinating with my garden for a while now, constantly forgetting or begging off the task of harvesting my vegetables. I dug up the potatoes a week or so ago, and I've been ever so slowly pulling out a few carrots, here and there in the meantime. But we've been getting some frost warnings around the province of late and today at work I declared that I would harvest the entirety of my carrots that very day.

Well, when I got home and set to the task, I discovered I had a lot of carrots. A LOT. I filled my large bowl until it was far past heaping, and I'd only dug up maybe a quarter of them. The washing and peeling took even longer, demanding far more of my time than I'd been willing to give. Looking down at my filling containers, I had to admit I had a lot of carrots. A LOT. How on Earth were two people supposed to eat four times that amount before they went bad?

I took a large container with me to a girlfriend's for coffee, hoping that my healthy snack would be gobbled up and I would be relieved of at least a few. My friends kindly obliged, as well as supplied me with a few suggestions for my carrot problem. What about carrot soup? Had I thought about pickling some? Oh dear. This was getting even more complicated. Their suggestions were great, but I'm domestically challenged. I'd love to pickle and stir, dice and boil, but all my attempts at homemade soup have thus far become chaotic burn fests resulting in lumpy greyish messes, unedible to anyone. And pickling? Didn't that require special jars? Precision? Skill of some kind or another?

Luckily, my sister has volunteered to guide me through the soup making process, so hopefully I'll be able to turn out something half way edible. And I've decided to rope my girlfriend into assisting with the pickling process. Because there are no heroes when it comes to garden harvesting. It calls for the helping hands of everyone you can rally.

I just hope I can still find love for carrots come next summer, From the looks of it, I might be all carroted out.