Four-Day Carrot Harvest For 2016
(And How To Make A Million Dollars Easy)

Dateline: 22 November 2016


Those of you who have read my blog for long (or have a copy of my Planet Whizbang Idea Book For Gardeners) already know about my carrot-shade-disc-and-tri-growing idea. Once again this year I have used the technique to bring up carrot seeds faster than usual (only four days!) and to grow some beautiful carrot specimens, as you can see in the picture above. I couldn't be more pleased. 

My Four-Day Carrots Video on YouTube now has 1,002,705 views. If I had a nickel for every view I'd be $5,013.75 richer. If I had a dollar for every view.... well, wouldn't that be something!

My friend George Steigerwald (who I think reads this blog) once told me that making a million dollars is easy. You just buy a million of something for a dollar and sell them all for $2. I think that was the gist of it. It's a simple mercantile concept. Buying and selling something is definitely a viable way to make money. I'm pretty sure it's easier than actually making things and selling them. But I digress.

You've heard me mention Will Bonsall and his book, Will Bonsall's Essential Guide to Radical, Self-Reliant Gardening, in recent blog posts here. The book is a bit pricy but, in my opinion, a truly unique and interesting gardening book. It is the book that turned me on to using shredded leaves in my garden.

The inspiration to shred leaves for mulch was, in itself, worth the cost of the book. But shredded leaves is just a very small part of Will's wide ranging advice. There are things in his book that are simply not found in other books. Like, for example, how to grow tiger nuts. 

What isn't in Will's book is the fact that tiger nuts are a big deal in the food world. My friend, Dale Weed, who knows a lot about this sort of thing (he's in the food business and goes to big food shows), tells me that the demand for tiger nuts is enormous. I don't know what a tiger nut is worth these days, but if you're looking for a cash crop, you should probably check it out. But, again, I digress. Back to carrots....

Another thing I learned from Will Bonsall's book is that carrots can be stored through the winter by packing them in barrels of new-fallen maple leaves. According to Will, carrots keep better and taste better when packed in leaves, as opposed to sand or sawdust. So, of course, I had to try that. I have packed three cardboard boxes full of carrots, layered and insulated with shredded leaves...



I like this carrot storage idea a lot. It seems much easier than digging four-day carrots out from under the snow (as I show in This YouTube Clip).


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Tiger Nuts Link 

8 comments:

  1. Storing carrots in leaves works very well. A few years ago I was able to gleam two tons of carrots for free. I tried to give away as many as I could but it's very hard work giving away 1,000's of pounds of carrots. So I tried an experiment to see what method kept best. I live in Wisconsin.
    1. 300 lbs Dedicated fridge in house with close control of humidity and temperature. (2nd worse results)
    2. 200 lbs: In a non working freezer outside with a light bulb that came on when dropped below freezing. (in sub zero weather the all froze- non usable)
    3. 400 lbs: In a cool room that stayed above freezing in banana boxes with sawdust from cutting trees. (good results and carrots I used most during winter as they were so easy to get at)
    4 400 lbs buried in ground with layers of leaves (maple, oak, ash). These kept best of all still usable in June.
    5. 1,000 lbs left on ground covered with plastic tarp. It snowed as so were covered all winter with snow. Still good in spring.

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  2. Excellent! Thank you for posting the results of your experiment. I guess my boxes in leaves would be comparable to #3. Being easy to get at is a big plus.

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  3. Elizabeth L. Johnson said,
    I'm taking notes Herrick and John! because I have friends in Center Harbor, New Hampshire, who could us this advice for storing carrots in cold weather!

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  4. I had to look into the Tiger Nuts thing. Found this site:

    http://empoweredsustenance.com/tigernuts-nutrition/

    When I was growing up on my parents farm in South Central Minnesota, one of the summer jobs was to walk the soybean fields. One of the fields had a large patch of what my parents called "Nutsedge" or "Nutgrass" It is a common weed and once it gets into a field, it is fiendishly difficult to eradicate. Shucks, if only I had known at the time that I was walking over a nutritional gold mine! As I recall, it grew well in the low ground.

    RonC

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  5. Herrick, First time commenting after coming across your blog several months ago (after seeing your 4 day carrot video on YouTube). I'm glad I found Upland. Thanks for all the information you put out there. I love your philosophy and ways that lead to truth.

    Great post and nice link.

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  6. How soon will we be able to hear your insight into your new garden venture of using squares made of 2X4's. I am always ready to see new ideas in the garden. LJ

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  7. 1,002,705 views. If I had a nickel for every view I'd be $5,013.75 richer.

    On the above I think your math is off - a nickel for every view would be 50,135.25.

    Always enjoy your posts.

    Regards,

    Tim

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  8. Hi Tim,

    Wow. I like the way you do math!

    $$$$$$$$$$$$$$

    I'm always getting the math wrong. I'm pretty sure I was born without the math gene (or the musical ability gene).

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