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Learning the history of heirloom vegetables seems to be 1 part truth, 1 part legend, and 1 part marketing hype, which makes getting the provenance details a difficult task. From what I’ve been able to piece together, the Scarlet Nantes carrot originated in France in the 1850′s (source:Seed Savers Exchange). The carrot was developed by the French seed company Vilmorin, a 265 year old seed company (in 2011) that has grown into one of the largest seed companies in the world.
The description of this carrot states that it is an open pollinated variety that is deep orange, with a very small core, and sweet, crisp flesh. From what we can tell, that description is 100% accurate. For the past 2 years I’ve been asked by my wife to grow her as many carrots as I can. So I planted more in 2011 than in the previous 2 years combined.
So far this season, I’ve harvested 68 carrots to the delight of my wife, who keeps asking for more after each successive harvest. I’m confident that I can’t keep up with her level of carrot eating and still grow other things in the garden.
(Side note #1 – that means she’ll have to cope with never having enough or she’ll have to improve her luck playing the California Lottery so she can buy me a neighboring property to expand the garden)
These carrots are supposed to have a 65 day cycle from planting to harvest, but I planted early (February 13), which is possible in this part of California. Planting that early, means a good Spring harvest, but it also means that the plants will grow more slowly, which is why I had my first harvest of Scarlet Nantes 13 weeks after planting (91 days — an additional 26 days of growing time). In the first harvest we got 23 carrots. In the second harvest 2 weeks later we got an additional 45 carrots (from the same February 13 planting).
To ensure a continuing supply, there have been additional plantings to ensure continued harvest after the Feb. 13th planting is exhausted.
Since I am doing a page on this blog about gardening economics, my wife suggested it would be helpful to document the ways we’ve been using the harvest of each of the vegetables. I thought that was a great idea after reading a ridiculous comment on the topic of gardening economics at the IDigMyGarden Forum.
Someone there said “the choice of food purchased or planted would not be the same…It’s intriguing that by having a home garden, some foodies may be driving up their grocery bills (if only on a per-item basis) because they’re hankering for something more exotic than what’s at home…”
(Side note #2 – insert an audible groan from me to accompany my rolling eyes 
)
Fortunately my household is more sophisticated than the person that made that comment and we plant what we actually want to use for a variety of recipes in the kitchen. This is a household strategy that we refer to as “common sense.” For those that aren’t familiar with common sense, my grandmother had a saying that explained it well:
– Common sense is the sense without which all other sense would be nonsense.
We are using are carrot harvest for:
- Raw carrot eating
- Stir frys
- An ingredient in different soups
