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Just east of Ames in Nevada carrots are nurtured
and harvested
on by Gary got three aptly nicknamed
the carrot king.
One of the varieties Gary grows is the Bolaro
carrot. These are the king and carrots
the best tasting carrots you ever find anywhere
grown here in Iowa and then surely I am their humble servant
The Balaros
are a fall carrot. They're meant to be storage carrot
so I'm I
plant them in July here in central Iowa anytime in the month of July
to harvest in October. One of the reasons why bolaro carrots are so good
in Iowa is that with the warm days and cool nights
in October especially after light frost the starches and these carrots turned to
incredible amount of sugar and they're super sweet and super crisp
and no California carrot can ever ever come close,
to the quality the crispness and the taste
of these bolaros. Starting out as a vegetable grower providing
CSA boxes, Gary's selections for his first carrot growing venture produced
tasty results especially the boleros.
And based on feedback from those who sampled his carrots
he knew he was onto something special. I was dropping out some carrots and
friends and given us some basketball tickets
to Iowa State men's basketball game and so I brought them some carrots
and their 7-year-old son took a bite,
and 30 seconds later he came back to his mom and said,
"can I have another carrot?" and I just laughed because it's like
okay when was the last time you ever heard your child ask for another carrot
And the children just love them everyone loves them.
Growing carrots in Iowa can sometimes be tricky
too much moisture or too much dryness are the usual challenges,
but there's more to it than that. Gary: I think
one of the problems people have with growing carrots is that they don't understand
how fragile
and small to carrot seed is. I mean they see it but they treat it like maybe a bean
seed are larger seed.
and it doesn't have a lot of energy to break to the soil surface
so one of the things I do
to have a good germination rate. I plant the seed and then I
put down a layer burlap and water and and
that way I keep it watered and until the carrots are emerging and that way they
able to break through the soil surface
as central Iowa
"carrot King" Gary has a reputation for producing delicious and
nutritious carrots. I am an ISU alumn, but my son
is a big strapping kid six-foot-six
people look at my wife and I say how did that happen I said it's the
carrots
and he ended up getting recruited by
University Iowa to play for the football team as their punter so
we went in to talk to Chris Doyle their strength and conditioning coach we talk
more about carrots and organicagriculture that we did about football
because those coaches know the intamant connection between
nutrition and performance and so after that every year I gave all the coaches
supply of my carrots. will only apply to come with a warning
Gary admits that he's
trying to spoil people with the flavor of his carrot
even our crew but he's a humble Carrot
King who wants all of us to be brave head out there
and grow our own scrumptious carrots.
I like to think that the King is advocate for
all good food and I hope more people are growing more carrots
I'm not why I don't want it all to myself I want people to grow lot some
good carrots
because it does make a difference in
people's lives and the quality.