Savvy Entertaining

Word of the Week: Heirloom

heir·loom

{air-loom}

adjective

being an old variety that is being cultivated again

Heirloom Carrots

Way back in the spring when the gardening bug was nipping away at me, I decided to plant carrots. The only problem was that I couldn’t find any carrot seed. Crazy, I know, but true.

So Hubby came home one day with a packet of heirloom carrot seed. I didn’t think anything about the seed being “heirloom” and quickly planted them. It wasn’t until I pulled up a purple carrot and stood looking at it a bit confused that I finally remembered we’d planted heirloom carrot seed.

It has turned into somewhat of an adventure. When you pull up a carrot, you never know what color you are going to get. It could be traditional orange, glowing white, brilliant yellow or purple.

A plate of shredded funky-colored heirloom carrots.

The other day when I decided to make Hubby his favorite carrot cake, I had a plate full of  oddly colored carrot shreds and wondered what they’d look like in the cake batter. Turns out, you can’t even tell. But I will tell you, it was an excellent cake. The carrots were so fresh and soft and rich it made a huge difference in the texture of the cake.

I would encourage you to try planting a few heirloom seeds next spring and see how much fun (and how tasty) it can be!