🥕 Carrot

Home-grown carrots are sweeter and more tender than most shop-bought ones, and they come in colours supermarkets rarely stock, from purple and yellow to white and deep orange. They are a cool-season crop that is sown where it will grow, and they suit raised beds and deep pots as well as open ground.

The main challenge in the UK is carrot fly, a small pest whose larvae tunnel into the roots. Everything else is straightforward: a light, stone-free soil, even moisture and sowings spread from spring to midsummer will give you fresh roots for most of the year.

Varieties to try

Nantes 5 (sweet and reliable)Early Nantes (first sowings)Autumn King (heavy cropper that stores well)Flyaway (partly carrot fly resistant)Paris Market (round roots for shallow pots)Purple Haze (purple skin, orange core)

Carrots dislike being moved, so sow them where they will grow. Prepare a fine, stone-free bed in full sun, raking out lumps and stones that make roots fork. Avoid fresh manure, which also causes forking; soil that was improved the previous year is ideal. Water the drill first, sow thinly in rows 15–30 cm apart, cover with 1 cm of soil and firm lightly.

Sow earlies under cloches or fleece from March, then maincrops from April to July. Seed can take two to three weeks to germinate, so mark the rows and keep the soil moist. In containers choose a pot at least 30 cm deep, using short or round varieties in shallower ones.

Top tips

• Sow thinly to cut down on thinning, which releases the scent that attracts carrot fly.
• Mix the fine seed with dry sand to space it more evenly.
• Sow a short row every three weeks to avoid a glut.
• Cover the seedbed with fleece to keep it warm and damp until seedlings appear.

Thin seedlings to 5–8 cm apart once they are about 5 cm tall. Water steadily, because roots split if the soil dries out and is then soaked. A thin mulch of grass clippings or compost keeps moisture even. Weed gently while the seedlings are small, as they are slow to start and easily smothered.

Protect against carrot fly with a 60 cm high barrier of fine mesh or fleece around the bed, as the female flies low to the ground. Sowing early or late to miss the main flights in May and again in August and September, and choosing resistant varieties, also helps. Avoid high-nitrogen feeds, which give hairy, forked roots and plenty of leaf.

Top tips

• A 60 cm barrier of fine mesh is the most effective carrot fly defence.
• Thin on a calm evening, then water and take the thinnings away.
• Rotate carrots to a new bed each year, away from parsnips.
• Cover any shoulders poking out of the soil so they do not turn green.

Watch out for

Carrot flyAphidsSlugs on seedlingsSplitting from uneven watering

Early varieties are ready 10–12 weeks after sowing and maincrops in 14–16 weeks. Pull one or two to check: baby carrots are delicious at finger width, while maincrops are best around 2–3 cm across the shoulder. Water the row the day before to soften the soil, then loosen it with a fork before pulling so roots do not snap.

Lifting disturbs the soil and releases scent, so pull in the evening or under a cover when carrot fly is about. Maincrops sown in late spring can stay in the ground and be lifted as needed until the soil freezes hard. In cold or very wet areas, lift them in November.

Top tips

• Twist off the foliage straight away, as leaves draw moisture out of the root.
• Pull every other carrot in a row first to give the rest room to swell.
• Cover rows with straw in winter so you can still lift in frost.
• Lift everything before slugs or hard frost damage the roots.

Carrots work raw and cooked: grate them into salads and slaws, roast with honey and thyme, boil and mash with swede, or simmer in soups and stews. Home-grown roots have thin, sweet skin, so scrubbing is usually enough. The feathery tops can be used in small amounts, for example blitzed into a salsa verde or pesto.

For short-term storage, twist off the tops and keep unwashed roots in a paper bag or box in the fridge, where they last three to four weeks. For longer storage, layer undamaged roots in boxes of slightly damp sand or compost in a cool, frost-free shed, where they keep for three to five months. They also freeze well when sliced and blanched for three minutes.

Top tips

• Store only undamaged roots, and eat any with slug holes or splits first.
• Check stored roots every few weeks and remove any that are going soft.
• Blanch for three minutes, cool quickly, then freeze in portions.
• Roast at 200°C for about 30 minutes for the sweetest flavour.