Carrots survived the winter

Unfortunately, any of your over-wintered carrots you want to eat, you will have to eat soon. Carrots are biennial so they will be going to seed this year. On the plus side of the ledger, they are an heirloom variety and you should be able to harvest true to type seeds for planting next year. One caveat to this though, if you have Queen Anne's Lace (wild carrot) growing nearby they will readily cross pollinate.

Ross.

No, they won't get bigger. What will happen is that they'll start to put out little rootlets and become tough, as they prepare to make seeds this year. The good news is that, since carrots grow so well throughout the winter where you live, you can plan to have year-round carrots, even if they are small. Plant fewer seeds, but more regularly (every three weeks or so), and you'll have a steady supply.

--S.

That's a good idea, I'll do a monthly seed planting. I'm going to try parsnips this year, is the same thing true for them?

Yes.

Try sprinkling some ground-up Viagra on them.

Seriously, though, is your soil very dense, maybe difficult for them to grow downward? Or perhaps they feel an incentive to grown down, due to too much moisture near the surface?

The ground is dense. I think I'll work in some peat moss this year.

A technique that I'll try this year is to use a dibble made from a shovel handle, or some such, or even a crowbar, to make a 9" deep hole, and fill it with potting soil for planting carrots/parsnips. If you have parsnips, now is the time to eat them. The cold makes them sweeter.

I just harvested my crop that I planted about this time last year. Temps had been down in the teens for a week this winter.

They were an odd lot, one was completely round, none more that a few inches. Still crisp, and fabulous in a pot roast. Nice carrot flavor.

I'll try not to do that again this year. I have a "wishing well" and some potting soil for this years patch.

Jeff