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In the first three articles of this series, we went over foolproof methods for sowing carrot seeds, germinating carrots seeds, and growing healthy carrots plants. With those steps completed, it's just a matter of bringing in the harvest and reaping the rewards, right? True, but there are some tricks I've learned over the years that will insure that your carrot harvest takes as little time as possible, and that, once brought in from the garden, your carrots will be ready for the table, and the surplus will be ready for storage.

Remember that day in springtime when you measured out your plot based on the number of seeds in your packet? The example I used was for a packet containing 500 seeds, which looks like next to nothing in the packet but which is indeed a heck of a lot of carrots. That's more than enough to sustain one person on a carrot-a-day habit for a year! That's a good problem to have, and personally I've never been one to go out to the garden and pull a bunch of carrots as they mature. This can work for you, but you'll need to get skillful at judging the size of a carrot root by external appearance, and I can tell you from experience that what may look sizable at the surface can disappoint once you've pulled it. On the other hand, a long, straight, and perfect carrot root can be hard to identify based on surface appearance.

My preferred method of harvesting carrots is to dig up the entire bed in one project. If you can, get the kids involved; pulling a beautiful carrot out by the tops is an exciting thing for kids to experience, and just might provide the spark to make them life-long growers of their own food. The best day to do this will be well after the maturation date listed on the seed packet, and preferably a day or two removed from either a soaking rain or a hose-down of the bed. The main tool for the harvesting carrots job is a four-tined spading fork. Half short-handled pitchfork, half shovel, this tool makes the process of lifting carrots out by the tops a simple one. Bury the tines into the soil about four inches away from the edge of the carrot bed (wear good shoes for this), pry and lift. It's good to have a partner to grab the tops: they will pull out neatly and can be laid onto a pile as the job progresses. Once you're done harvesting carrots, remove the tops by snipping off the top half-inch (1cm) of the root. The tops can be left in place to decompose, or can be added to your compost pile.

If you're fortunate enough to have loose, deep soil, you may by able to pull carrots out by the tops without the aid of a spading fork. Consider yourself lucky, and enjoy the time saved!

The next stop is a washing station. I wash all carrots thoroughly at this stage, even the ones headed into storage. With a big harvest, the most efficient method is to hose them down on a concrete or asphalt driveway. I've built myself a 3x4-foot (1x1.5 meter) wooden frame and fastened hardware cloth to the bottom to make an ideal washing screen. Prop it on bricks, dump in your carrots, and blast them with a strong jet from your garden hose. This will remove almost all mud from the field, and you'll enjoy the color that emerges from behind the soil.

The next article in this series tells you what to do next, as you prepare your carrots for storage, or for the table.