I love carrots. Crunchy, sweet and vitamin-packed, the carrot is the perfect veggie. Cooked or raw, I could eat carrots until I turned orange with beta-carotene.

(Note: Keep your nasty bag of baby carrots away from me – I’m an old school carrot sticks kinda girl. Didja know store-bought baby carrots are actually eight-inch carrots in disguise? After these giants are harvested from the field, they are chopped into small pieces, peeled, and “polished.”)

As my garden grew, I was filled with carrot concerns. Are they planted too close together? Are they getting too much sun? Too much water?

When I dug up the carrot bed for cool season crops, I was surprised by my bounty of bite-sized veggies. I removed their green tops, gave them a quick scrub, then shared my harvest with friends and family.

A month later, I’m still munching and crunching my homegrown baby carrots.

This late in the growing season, people start to think about putting their gardens to bed. Corn is turning brown. Cukes are tired. Tomatoes make a mad dash to the finish line with new green fruit.

Who could’ve guessed that my cool season crops would outgrow my carrot harvest? Arugula, kale, mustard, and broccoli rapini made the most of the rain - and my salad plate. I thin the bed before dinner and find twice as many greens the next morning for my bag lunch.

Sometimes I even find a rogue carrot or two.

Cool season crops can also be grown indoors! If you have a spare salad bowl, a sunny window and lazy cats, you can have fresh greens all winter long.

I love Thursdays in downtown Minneapolis.

All growing season long, the farmers’ market transforms six blocks of Nicollet Avenue from a hampster habitrail into a thriving metropolis. Freshly-dug red onions, bright bouquets of sunflowers, tone-deaf street musicians - Minnesotans stumble out of their skyways for a breath of fresh air and a taste of community. Step onto the crowded sidewalk, inhale, close your eyes and you can be anywhere in the world.

Well, maybe downtown Toronto.

Besides peoplewatching, the farmers’ market is an excellent opportunity for an impromtu Q & A with local growers. Curious about kohlrabi? Befuddled by beets? An intelligent gardening question can illicit a scowl or a 30-minute conversation about cold pickling cucumbers.

Lately, I’ve been asking a lot of questions about carrots. Strolling by bushel after bushel of orange beauties, you can’t help but pity the pipsqueaks struggling in your own back yard.

Farmer 1: Carrots do not like to be crowded. You should really thin them more. Better luck next year.

Farmer 2: Carrots, eh? It took me a couple years to get ‘em right. I’d yank ‘em out. Yes, indeed - YANK ‘EM!

Farmer 3: BWAHAHAHA! You still have carrots in the ground? Get your black thumb away from my stand!

Before ripping up my raised bed or ripping off my alleged black thumb, I decided to thin the carrots again and wait a week or two. Am I on the right track? What do your carrots look like?

In the same carrot bed, my cilantro and spinach have bolted long ago. Though I’m charmed by their little white flowers, these old greens have got to go. I’d like to yank them out and give cool season crops a try, but I don’t know that much about them. Do you? Have you tried planting kale or snap peas as summer wanes? Do you know anything about potato garlic?

If I’m too optimistic about our Minnesota growing season, please - stop me now.