Carrot Day in Massachusetts

Our vision is that many people all across Massachusetts will eat a locally grown “frost kissed carrot” soon after the first frost of Fall 2019!

The goal of the project is to increase interest in growing, harvesting and eating food in Massachusetts.

If you have ever tasted a carrot picked after a frost you know how good it is.  The starches in the carrot start to turn to sugars as the carrot root protects itself from the cold.  The taste and the crunch of a “frost kissed carrot” can transform the way we think about food. Not just on Carrot Day but on every day as children and adults taste, feel and smell the explosive value of a really good carrot and carrots are just the entry point to a new way to think about and experiencing food and health.

What we are doing:

At the end of the spring folks all over Massachusetts will plant carrot seeds with the goal of harvesting them after the first frost. Gardeners, school children, farmers, and volunteers will tend those carrots in the summer-thinning and weeding and watering. Then after the first frost they will harvest the carrots. Those spectacular carrots will be eaten at public events all across the state, celebrating the human process of growing and tending with the natural process of plants growing in summer and response to frost in the fall.

Part of what makes this exciting is the mystery of when Carrot Day will be.

We never know for sure when the first frost will be. We can be certain that it will be sooner on the shoulders of Mt. Greylock than off the beaches of Truro.  This will be a chance to participate in Citizen Science as we map the planning, tending, and harvesting of carrots across the state.

We are beginning as a partnership between CitySprouts, Holly Hill Farm and schools in and around Cambridge.  But why stop there– join us to make Carrot Day Massachusetts a transformative event.

The task is simple.  Plants some carrots, tend them, harvest them, and then eat them in a public space.

Some carrots will come from school gardens

Some will come from backyards

Some will come from Community Gardens

Some will come from local farmers

Some will be orange, some yellow, some red, some purple

Some will be small, some the size of a commercial carrot, some will be giant

All will have the taste of frost, and all will be fresh.

It will be more than fun.

It will be a mapping and documenting project where the data points will tell a story.  But the main goal is to change how children and adults experience food.

Carrot Day could set us on a path of producing and consuming local food for health, for fun, and for the sustainability of our earth.

Join our team.

What we need:

• Space to plant carrots all across the state
• Schools to join us
• Community and backyard (or even better front-yard) gardeners
• Local farms
• Chefs
• Colleges
• Folks to send in records
• Business sponsors

Help make Carrot Day happen in a big way all across Massachusetts!

You are seeing the first steps in our web page.

Join us, we will, in time be graphing, mapping and creating a shared Google photo album.

We will also have links to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram Carrot Day Massachusetts.