First Carrot Harvest

Anyway, as we have some store-bought carrots in the refrigerator now, I'm not going to take a big harvest just yet; the carrots could stand to get a little bigger anyway. But, I think from now on, we no longer have to buy carrots from the market...

Dig it.
After long last, my carrots are finally of a worthwhile size to harvest. I planted them on April 4th, and they were supposed to mature in about 75 days, but it's been more like 95. I guess that's attributable to the cool weather? Not sure.

Sometimes, you get lucky

On Wednesday of last week our family went to the first weekly Andersonville Farmers' Market, which operates on Wednesday afternoons on Berwyn Avenue between Ashland and Clark--that is to say: right beside our church. A small affair at the moment, but it seems to be expanding if this week's number of vendors and patrons was any indication. Anyway, there was a drawing for a free rain barrel, selected by pulling out a random business card from a fish bowl.

As you might guess from the picture above, I won it! I've never won anything significant in a drawing or raffle in my life, so I was mightily pleased. We've now installed it under the drainpipe on the east sidse of our house, and it's already seen action in a light rain. It collected probably 20 gallons (it holds 55 gal at full capacity), and I've used some of it for watering the gardening.

Pretty cool...