We get pretty excited around here when it starts to feel like fall. The weeds slow down, the days are shorter, and everyone looks great in a sweater.
But us farmers aren’t the only thing that gets sweeter as the temperatures dip. Once we start getting some hard frosts in the fields (nighttime lows in the low 30s), the carrots and other cold-hardy crops start converting their starches to sugar to endure the freezing temps. Check out this fun article for a more detailed explanation.
With only one cold-ish night on the books so far, the carrots haven’t had to mount their sugar defenses quite yet. But by the time the Thanksgiving market rolls around, we’ll probably have the season’s very sweetest cold-hardy veggies. No promises on the sweetness of the farmer, though.