Crochet & Carrots

In which Fiona learns that cooking and craft never mix.

Photo Good Taste magazine

On Friday I learnt how to crochet! Yes I've tried before, and even produced stitches, but never really quite got the hang of holding the hook and the yarn properly until Helen taught me. Since then I've been practicing trebles and today crocheted my first granny square, which I finished at a park while the girls rollerbladed and scootered, and model aeroplanes zoomed overhead.

When we came home we decided to harvest the rest of our carrots. This is our first attempt at growing carrots, and we have many carrots growing, but because of the poor soil (and who knows what else?) they haven't grown to full size and tend to be fairly runt-ish and sometimes grotesque.

We found about 40 little carrots, then proceeded to wash them, first outside, then at the kitchen sink. We rubbed them with our green enjo vegetable cleaning cloth to remove most of the soil. Then I peeled them (do you know how hard it is to peel a 2cm carrot?) because we've found that even at that size they can taste bitter without peeling.

My plan was to cook Cinnamon Glazed Carrots, recipe from Good Taste magazine, and photo above. I put 42 little carrots (of all shapes and sizes) in a saucepan with 1/4 cup water, 30g butter, 1 tablespoon brown sugar and a large pinch of cinnamon, and brought them to a simmer.

Then, with crochet on my mind, I went and checked out my wool collection. Back and forth to the saucepan, until I decided to tackle this massive tangle:


And that was the end of the carrots. The next thing I knew Steve was telling me the pot was black! The house was full of smoke!

I managed to save some carrots and cut off the black bits - they were delicious! But oh, after all that work! Starting last spring when we dug the garden and sowed the seeds!


One day soon I'll show you some of my crocheting. Just working now on the finer points ... my granny square is looking more like a sort of "great aunt square" ... it closely resembles a granny square from a distance, but close up there are a few little differences!