Recipe: Swedish Carrot Pudding
Last year at the Common Ground Fair we had a stall at the farmer's market selling vegetables. It was a good experience all around, but the best moment came when a young woman told me, after sampling, that "these are the best carrots I have ever tasted! And I'm a carrot person!"
One could not ask for a more handsome compliment than that. Carrots are not very flashy vegetables, often overgrown and overlooked. But a well grown carrot, crunchy, succulent and sweet, is a very fine thing. Which brings me to Mike Smith and Upland Farm.
Mike has been growing organically for a long time and is a well known figure in Mofga (Maine Organic Farmer and Gardener's Association) circles. Last year he grew the biggest pumpkin at the fair, a monster.
Mike, his wife Cindy, son and daughter, live on a tidy homestead in Brooks, free of electricity and other modern inconveniences. They have, and I say this grudgingly, one of the neatest, finest vegetable plots I have ever seen. When I asked Mike his secret for keeping down weeds, he said it was "a ten year old boy with a hoe."
The Smiths grow gourds, which they make into whimsical Christmas ornaments for sale. They also specialize in "just-dug" carrots in the wintertime, which they sell through the Coop and Unity Farmers' Market, and this year through the Belfast Farmers' Market's Winter Marketplace.
We are proud to have them. The bright orange, flawless roots, washed and bagged and ready to eat, seem a little bit miraculous in Maine in mid-winter. Can these be locally grown?
Mike's secret to having freshly dug carrots all winter long is elegant and simple. In late summer he sows the seed in rows. Carrot soil should be deep, loamy and fertile but not too rich, since too much nitrogen will result in split, hairy roots.
When the carrots have reached a mature, marketable size, he covers the rows with a thick layer of hay to insulate the roots from the cold and to keep the ground workable, and over this he puts hoops and plastic to keep off the snow and ice.
Treated this way, carrots will survive the worst winter weather, growing steadily sweeter as the frost enhances the natural sugars in the roots. Mike pulls aside the covering and digs the carrots just before market. He admits that digging root vegetables in January is not his favorite job. It's cold, finger-nipping work.
But the results are worth it. Mike's carrots are delicious and crisp as icicles, caught at their peak condition and held over the winter in their favorite environment: dirt. His product is not only excellent and very modestly priced, but also a useful lesson for anyone interested in vegetable season extension in Maine.
The Smiths can be reached at Upland Farm, 722-3796. The Winter Marketplace is open Saturdays, 10-1 at the Agway Greenhouse on Route 1.
Beat eggs, add sugar, almonds, extract and 2 cups milk. Beat well. Add carrots and pour into a buttered baking dish. Bake 1 « hours at 350 degrees.