I Ate the Plant!

Beyond Baby Carrots

When our son Conrad was just a little boy, we got a carton of strawberries from a local farm stand in central Indiana and started to eat them right away, still warm from the sun. Sara and I used the leaves as a handle that allowed us to eat the fruit—and then we discarded the leaves. But not Conrad: he popped the whole thing in his mouth, leaves and all, and called out with delight, “I ate the plant!”

That’s where I am with carrots these days. I eat the plant.

I used to buy bags of “baby carrots.” I mean, they’re small and ready to eat and, as carrots go, they’re fairly sweet. And the grocery stores make them really easy to buy: there are several size bags—snack size to jumbo size—and they’re right up front in the produce section. They want me to buy these carrots.

But at some point I realized these aren’t baby carrots at all, just regular carrots that have been cut up and polished and dipped in chlorine to make them last longer.

So I started to buy whole carrots, either loose or in a bag, and I cut them up myself. Sure, it took a bit more work but they tasted the same and they cost a whole lot less.

Then I followed Michael Pollan down the whole “eat local” rabbit hole, and I started to around for where I could buy my carrots (indeed, all my veggies) locally. That set me off first to farmer’s markets and then to signing up for a CSA (that’s “community supported agriculture”) subscription from a nearby farm. (I wrote about this last year in “Eat Your Veggies.”)

When you buy carrots from local farmers, though, you get more than carrots. You also get this mass of frilly green stuff at the top of the carrots. When I first got carrots this way, I thought “Why are they giving me the leaves when I just want to eat the fruit?” So I chopped off the top and threw it all away.

But then it started to dawn on me that they were giving me this stuff because IT WAS FOOD (really, I marvel sometimes at my ignorance.) And if it was food and I was paying for it, I figured I might as well use it.

And that’s how I came to eat the plant, and not just with carrots but also with beets and garlic scapes and … well, I’m sure there’s more.

The pics below are of the local farm where I get my veggies, Skylight Farms; a couple of the folks who work there; and the carrots as they make their way from the dirt to the stand to my kitchen, where I made this carrot green chimichurri to top my pork tenderloin. (Oh, and also some braised mustard and beet greens with bacon and onions, using greens from Skylight. Greens! Don’t get me started.)