n Sunday we dug the carrots, rutabagas, and parsnips out of the garden.  My mother has been washing carrots and cucumbers in an old ringer washer for years.  It’s agitator doesn’t even bruise them.  She doesn’t wash other root crops, but has taken to washing the carrots, drying them completely and then storing them in the refridgerator in those special green plastic bags that are supposed to let veggies breathe, and keep longer.  She finds they keep well that way.  Below she shows off one of the giant carrots from the garden this year.  They never used to thin their carrots, and they didn’t get terribly big.  This year they planted them a couple inches apart and they grew much bigger.