Why? How? Why…?
Really. Why are the carrots SO BIG out here in NYC? The carrot you see above is typical of carrots in NYC–just…ginormous. It was procured at Fairway Market in Harlem–but I have seen similarly sized carrots at the Union Square Greenmarket, too.
Do they grow a different variety out here because of climate/soil? I have so many questions. So.many.questions.
But for now: NYC Carrots. #WINNING!
Also, I had the most WINNING (yes, Charlie Sheen’s “WINNING” has replaced “FTW” in our vernacular) ramen today at Ippudo. It was ramen-mazing:
I promise, this blog will get back to regularly scheduled programming soon. But it’s been a crazy week: I got the flu (some mega-germ traveled in someone’s body fluid (spit?) onto my hand, into my mouth, into my flu-shot-immunized body, braved the elements, and managed to take over the ship). This hijacking occurred during the week we were moving apartments. Any vertically-oriented minute was spent unpacking, or shlepping my body over to the new place.
Monday begins a new week: back to the novel. 🙂
And something I’ve been meaning to throw out for some time…
You should read Mat Johnson’s* amazing new novel, PYM. I just finished reading it, and did not want to put it down. The voice, the plot, the themes! If you don’t believe me, read the NY Times review, the Wall Street Journal’s review of PYM, or Salon’s book review.
And you should read Vida by Patricia Engel**, too. Pitch perfect stories that were recently optioned into/as a film. And for the record, Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times LOVED it.
*Mat is a friend and mentor/teacher of mine. Just sayin’.
**Patty is a good friend of mine–we met Mat together. Also, just sayin’, in the interest of full disclosure.
80,000 words 
March is a tough time to find much in the way of fresh, local produce. The big carrots are prob all that they have left in storage at this point, as they keep and ship better than the smaller ones (less relative surface area, thicker rind–I think the max storage time for carrots is around three-four months, which would make sense.)
Given all of the microclimates around NYC and the $ incentive to extend growing seasons there, I’d suspect you will find a wide variety of smaller, sweeter local carrots from Spring through the Fall without much difficulty– hang in there.
Glad to hear that you are moved in and feeling better.
You have taken the wonder out of these carrots–but at the same time, I also feel totally satisfied! It makes sense that these are storage carrots–it explains why they don’t really exist in California, and why they are so prevalent here (in Feb/March).
I will have to grow a small pot of herbs or something here. I have no idea when to start planting here on the East Coast.
Sorry. I’ll further the wonder crushing by saying that they could very well be CA carrots grown for shipping to cold weather markets. A few of my weekly allotment of big carrots (tapered at the end, not quite as big and round as your big carrots) from my CSA guy have had cracks in them lately (dried out and split from extended storage) still perfectly edible, but it sure makes you want Spring to get going already.
You can def start peas now (if the rats don’t dig them up), maybe seedlings for your cooler weather stuff indoors.