Carrot Bread

I just made some carrot bread. I will post the recipe, I took it off the web, but modified it a bit. I'm claiming it as mine, but, the author of the original is CL, so thank you CL.

Why did I make carrot bread? I woke up at 6:00 went down to the garden to do some work, I love working early morning hours. You are the only one up. Its just you and nature, or you maybe better said, you and God. You get to spend some quite time talking to him. I love the bird calls, the dew, I like to take it all in. Plus, seeing the sunrise is always a great way to make my day!

Anyway, so I was down in the garden. One of the first things I did was turn the compost. I layed down some branches at the bottom to provide a little more air at the bottom. Then I put some of the compost I had just turned on Saturday (it was a little steamy!) on to the pile to add some almost ready compost to help this pile. I than put some comfrey leaves on it and put the whole pile on it. The bottom was actually doing quite well, but the top was some what dry. I mixed it in layers with fresh grass clippings I had raked up earlier (the grass was cut saturday). So, I have that one turned, I will probably continue to add to it, but now I have a new pile. After that I did some hand weeding. I really do enjoy hand weeding, especially in my garden. I have things in blocks not in rows, making it easier to weed by hand. You only do a few sections at a time. So I weeded the carrots, beets, and leeks. I than wanted to check on my carrots that I had planted back in March/April. I pulled up one I had transplanted and thought it was the funniest looking carrot I had every seen. It was sorta like a ball at first, and then it had 4 small carrot roots coming off from it. I then pulled up another and found it had carrot root fly maggots in it. I pulled up another and found the same. So, I lifted all my carrots, 3 out of all of them (15-20 small carrots) didn't have the root fly maggots.

I was able to salvage most of them, cutting off the top where the maggot was in. I was now worried about the parsnips, so I dug up a smallish one. It was doing great and no maggots! It was about half an inch diameter and 5-6 inches long. I was very excited.

My watermelons are doing well, my biggest are about 3 inches diameter. They are small red sugar baby, so they will only get a to four or five pounds. Next year I am thinking about doing 3 kinds of watermelon.

So, thats about all. I picked four more cucumbers today. I think I have picked at least 30 this year. I hope to get at least that many from the vines. And at least that many from the cucumbers just sprouting now (I planted more). A lot of my squash is going wild. Every day growing about 4 inches.

My garden still seems to be a bed and breakfast for the deer. But they haven't done a lot of damage. Just a leaf here and there. I saw three of them today while weeding.

I am hoping to get some cedar logs and stumps for a herb garden I am working on up here today. Maybe I can get my younger siblings to come with me for a trek in the woods.

God bless! Have a merry fourth (I know it was yesterday, but some are celebrating it today) of July!

English Vintner

p.s. Almost forgot the recipe. :) Tell me if you try it!

Carrot Bread From the Kitchen of Zachariah English

2 eggs
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/3 c. oil
1/2 tsp vanilla, 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice, 1/4 tsp grape fruit extract

1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
zest from one orange

1 c. grated carrots
1/3 c. raisins
1/3-1/2 c. crushed pineapple

Mix eggs, sugar, oil, and extracts together. In separate bowl mix flour, soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, zest. Combine the two, stirring just until mixed. Fold in carrots and raisins. Pour half of the batter into greased 9x5 pan. Mix together 2TBS of cream cheese with 1TBS milk and heat to soften, once warm add a little flour. Spread this mixture on top of the batter, pour the rest of the batter over top. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on it and dot with walnuts.

Bake at 350º until well browned, 40 min to and hour. Makes one loaf, or a dozen small muffins. If making into muffins reduce the baking time to about 12-15 minutes.