Carrot top greens

[Darlene]

I went up to the Amish market today for the first time this spring. Their produce is just starting to come in so I got a bunch of strawberries, green onions, lettuces, cakes, zucchini, cabbage and fresh whole carrots. 
 

The carrots have the greens still on them so I wanted to see if or what everyone uses them for. I’m making up a huge batch of chicken soup to can and figured I’d throw a handful of the greens in for the vitamin content. I did some quick searches and saw where people make pesto with them, Chimichurri and several other things. 
 

Do y’all ever repurpose your carrot top greens?

[out_of_the_ordinary]

They go in the pot when I'm making bone broth or chicken broth.

 

Does anyone else save parsley stems for broth/stock?   Whenever I'm dehydrating parsley (from our garden)  I put the stems in with broth as well.  

 

Edited April 14, 2023 by out_of_the_ordinary

[Darlene]

I added the whole carrot and top to step one of the chicken soup. 

[Dee]

I've used carrot tops for broth, but I would suggest you don't use a whole lot.  They're pretty powerful.

 

I do the same out of the ordinary.  They also dry up nicely to cut into salads.

 

 

[Darlene]

26 minutes ago, Dee said:

I've used carrot tops for broth, but I would suggest you don't use a whole lot.  They're pretty powerful.

 

 

That’s good to know. I only put 4 whole carrot tops in to the stage 1 and will perhaps do a small pinch once I go to pressure can it. 
 

Plus there’s 2 whole roaster chickens in the huge pot so hopefully that’ll not be too much. 

[Littlesister]

That soup looks good. I have used carrot tops in the chicken soups I make and can. Never had any issues with it so far. But I don't put a lot in it. 

[euphrasyne]

I've diced them finely and used them with some oil to season potatoes before roasting them.  

[Mother]

I have used them in in broth and in soups.  I save all clean peelings, skins, vegetable tops, stems of all sorts of vegetables and herbs in large bags in the freezer, adding to it as I have them.  When I have enough to make a big batch I make vegetable broth out of them.  I have used them for making pesto but as Dee says, they can be overpowering. Euphrasyne, I like the idea is using them finely chopped with roasted potatoes.  
 

 

[Darlene]

7 quarts and 20 pint load (I think - it might be one or two more) in the monster canner.

 

It’s been a long day and I’m tired lol but hopefully this will last a year or two. 
 

I put a pinch of the carrot tops in each jar too!

[Littlesister]

You have been very busy Darlene.  Things are just starting to come in here at the farmer's markets but they are coming out of SC and NC right now. So hopefully in a month or two we will be getting it all from VA.  Got fresh eggs today straight from the chickens. They were selling them at the farm market this morning. 

[Darlene]

26 minutes ago, Littlesister said:

Got fresh eggs today straight from the chickens. They were selling them at the farm market this morning. 

Eggs. 
 

Oy vey. 
 

A month or so ago I wrote about how there are very few chicks to be found anywhere, much less the breed I prefer. 
 

I scoured the internet and finally found some out of Michigan and ordered a dozen that won’t be here till end of May which is fine. 
 

Shortly after that I went into the coop and found one of my hens lazily laying on who know how many eggs. 
 

Today I went in there again and she’s still

there lazily laying on her eggs and in the box right next to her is ANOTHER hen incubating Lord knows how many eggs. 
 

I don’t even want to think how many chicks I’ll have shortly 

[Darlene]

Ta da!

 

22pts and 7 quarts. 
 

It’s always amazing how rich the broth gets after canning. When I first make the stock I add the chicken and veggies and this batch I simmer for about 18 hours on low. 
 

When I went to put everything together, I deboned the chicken and cut up fresh raw veggies (carrots, onion and celery) and weighed them into the jars. I also took the garlic pod this time and removed all the cooked garlic and put into my vitamix, added some of the broth and puréed and poured it back into the rest of the big pot of stock. The broth didn’t taste garlicky but I know its nutrients are also in the mix. 
 

I was surprised when I pulled out the jars this morning and saw how deep and rich the broth had become. Probably from the fresh veggies that cooked while in the canner  

 

Today is strawberries and then I’m done for now. 

[Darlene]

Chicken soup?

 

Check. 
 

Strawberry jam?

 

Check. 
 

Granola?

 

Half a check - it’s in the oven baking.

 

I quit for now. 

[Ambergris]

I have another batch of chicken-foot broth in the slow cooker now.  Chicken feet come in the giblet bag here.  This has feet, neck, liver, back, a store bought carrot, some carrot greens, plantain (the green weed), onions of various kinds, a knob of ginger, a little vinegar, salt and whole pepper, and recycled bones from yesterday's broth.

[Dee]

Lovely Darlene.  I'm glad you and Ambergris have ambition.  I've lost mine but am hoping to find it again soon......big sigh!

Edited April 16, 2023 by Dee

[Ambergris]

It  ebbs and flows, like all things.  Don't despair.

[Darlene]

Ok. Granola. Done. 
 

Wood fire pizzas for dinner, but we do those every week so piece of cake. 

[Darlene]

34 minutes ago, Dee said:

Lovely Darlene.  I'm glad you and Ambergris have ambition.  I've lost mine but am hoping to find it again soon......big sigh!

Ambergris is right. It ebbs and flows and is dependent upon 1000 things, at least for me. 
 

I’ve been looking forward to the strawberries from the Amish market all winter so that got me stoked. Same with the carrots. Had bought the roaster hens to do last December for Christmas gifts but didn’t have time so threw the chicks in the freezer till Amish carrot season started lol. 

 

The granola is a mom thang. My oldest son hasn’t been eating enough in the mornings because he likes a quick fix and I haven’t made the granola for a couple of weeks. Guilt is a great motivator so I promised him I’d make it for him this weekend. My fresh flaked oatmeal from the whole grain, honey from my hives, vanilla bean paste I made, organic coconut oil, Ceylon cinnamon quills I roasted and ground myself, etc etc etc. 

 

One of the blessings of being a prepper is that we learn how to store (what to most people) are unusual things. The reward is we are better prepared, but also we can make things like I have done and we all do here, that is superior to anything you could purchase commercially. 
 

I have my sites set on your chocolate zuke cake Dee. Just ran out of time this weekend but we have a cold snap coming (blackberry ‘winter’ here) and will make it in the next few days. 

[Dee]

Hope you ladies are right.  Maybe when the weather stays nice for more than a day???  We had 82 last Thursday and 30 this morning with snow when we got up.  Guess that's enough to depress anyone! 

[Darlene]

Yep same here just not as extreme…

 

Turn the ceiling fans on in the house - it’s warm outside. Next day, start a fire in the wood stove. 
 

We’re getting to the end of the fluctuations though so hopefully sooner than later the warmth will be sustained. 

[Dee]

That's right!  We had the air on for 2 days but back to the furnace now.  Hopefully you're right about the warmth coming before long.!

[Littlesister]

All the food from everyone looks yummy.  Can't wait to get back into the canning business again. I will be going full steam ahead this year.  

We are still having cool nights. So I have been opening the windows at night. Daytime is now in 70's and a couple of 80* days. Nights have been in the 50's with a couple of nights in the 60's.  Good sleeping weather.  Was going to work in garden early this morning but looks like we got rain last night. Gardens are all wet but should be dry enough in a couple of hours to work in. Hoping to finish up the planting today and tomorrow. Then I can move on to other things. I saw a site where they have fruit trees that you can plant in buckets. I think they called them patio trees but not sure. Going to check them out some more. That might work out for me for some of the trees I want.

[Littlesister]

Looking like my carrots are just breaking ground now.  So in about 70 to 80 days I should be having carrots. Wonder if you could freeze or dehydrate the carrot tops for later use on things?  I have never tried it but next time I make broth I want to try some carrot tops in it. 

[Darlene]

I admittedly have issues. 
 

Or, they’re not issues, but wisdom in action. 
 

Yeah, that’s how I’ll confess it - wisdom in action. 
 

I made my 3rd trip to the Amish market yesterday. Got there 15 min before it opened and there were 40+ elderly people politely standing in 2 lines in both sides or the building. I stood in the shorter line which was smart and when the market opened they went flowing into the store, straight to the strawberry counter. 

 

There was no way to get any at that moment so I wheeled my bright yellow shopping cart around to another aisle looking for rhubarb. I didn’t see it at first, glanced over at the elderly still frantically capturing quarts of strawberries. I turned my cart around and voila! There were 8 bundles of rhubarb. How could I have almost missed them? I scooped up the 8 bundles, threw them into my cart and made it over to the strawberry area that had calmed down a little although there were still several people grabbing as fast as they could. I finally made it up to the front of the area and started talking to a guy next to me. He had 3 flats (8qts/flat) and half of another one. He was waiting to finish off the 4th flat and he began to share that this was 2nd or 3rd run he had made getting strawberries over the last couple of weeks. He definitely helped me not feel so bad, especially with all the other people grabbing tons too lol. 
 

I share with him my Pamona pectin discovery- have known about it for decades but never tried it till this year - and how I’m loving the consistency of the jams setting with far less sugar than I have to use with the other brands. He got all excited, was struggling to remember the name and asked me several times to repeat it. Finally I went out of the market to get cell service and sent him a link on Amazon to check it to his cell and he was on top of the world. 
 

It was so cute and adorable to see all these elderly clamoring to get a healthy stash of these strawberries just like I was. And it’s a testimony of the quality of the Amish produce because nobody knows what real food tastes like better than those who have been around long enough to remember the truly good old days. 
 

My score? 8 bundles of rhubarb and 15 quarts of strawberries. Not as much as I would have liked lol but definitely enough to preserve and save for a rainy day. 

[Ambergris]

I've used carrot tops, sparingly, in my vegetable powder mixes.  Kind of a parsley-ish taste, but can get bitter.

 

On a related note, I picked up an herb today that's called "maggi" because adding it to soup produces a flavor similar to adding Maggi brand bouillon.  The cube or granular Maggi is very popular here, but considered too expensive for everyday use.  I also picked up a rosemary that's different from the one I have, something called "anise," and a trio of one of the horchata herbs, but not the white sage because PM was so delighted I'd found some--and there were only two plants.  She's more likely to grow them big and happy enough to take cuttings from, so she gets custody of them.

 

I'm trying to effectively identify the "anise."  It's not anise, anise hyssop, nor star anise, but might possibly be a tarragon.  It has a pleasant anise smell and taste and leaves that would look like French tarragon leaves if they were more pointed at the tips.  Still looking into this.