As Organic As You Can Get – Preparing Organic Carrots

Sophia is eating food.  Not baby food, but food food.  It's a good thing I prepared for this…

Last Spring, while I was 7 months pregnant, I planted carrot seeds indoors in our seed starting tray.  What was I doing on my due date?  Weeding the garden, of course!  Seriously, Miss Sophia was perfectly happy and fine in my belly and I wanted to make sure her carrots were weed free!

Fast forward to a few weeks later, it was time to pull the carrots!

Since Sophia was only a couple months old, she wasn't quite ready to eat her organic carrots yet, so I researched online about how to freeze them.  My first intentions were to can them (another thing I really started to pick up on this Summer), but I can with a water bath, which is not recommended for any type of veggies that aren't acidic.

Preparing Organic Carrots

1. Wash the carrots.
2. Peel and trim the ends.  Cut into smaller pieces.

   

3. Blanch the carrots:  Put carrots into boiling water for no longer than 5 minutes.  After, put them immediately into ice water to stop the cooking process.  Rule of thumb:  However long you boiled the carrots, leave them in the ice water for the same amount of time!
4. Drain thoroughly.
5. Bag your carrots.  I don't own a vacuum sealer, so the best way for me to get as much air out as possible is to zip up the bag and put a straw down one side.  Suck all the air out and you have your own vacuum sealed bag… seriously!

I had enough carrots for 3 Quart size bags and then I double bagged in a Gallon Freezer bag to keep them from getting freezer burnt.  There is just something so special about planting a tiny seed and seeing this much come from it and knowing that you grew your own veggies!  I hope I never lose the amazement and satisfaction I feel every time I pick/pull/eat a vegetable or fruit that we've grown ourselves!

A few weeks ago, I took out my first bag of carrots.  I boiled them, pureed them in my food processor, and was so excited for Sophia to have her first bite of our carrots!  How did she react?  With love, admiration, and appreciation?  NO WAY!  She gagged, coughed, and turned her nose up to my hard work!

Sooo… I was quite disappointed with that reaction.  When I took the second bag out of the freezer the other night, I decided to cook them and keep them chopped, since she is enjoying self-feeding her puffs so much.  Guess what?!

She LOVED them!

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