Accidental Carrots

Today I was working in my yard when I noticed some frothy white blossoms growing out of the middle of a patch of Black Eyed Susans.

Now, I LOOOOOVE Black Eyed Susans.  I tried planting them at our old house and I never could get them to grow so I'm kinda thrilled that they are thriving here.

And that's why I wanted to get rid of whatever intruder was edging its way into their territory.

So I followed the stem of the invader down to the ground and used a shovel to loosen the dirt so I'd get the whole root but not dig up my happy, yellow, beauties.

And I got the whole thing.  Right down to the root.

This was the root.

Yup.  It was a carrot.  (I've never had a carrot get to flower before so I had NO idea that this is what they looked like when they do.)

Unbeknownst to me, underneath the canopy of Black Eyed Susan growth, there was a family of carrots happily thriving in the shadows.

I was clueless (um, what does that say about my gardening prowess).  I have been unwittingly caring for carrots all summer and until now I was in the dark about the whole thing (sneaky little creatures).

But, hey, that's a happy accident.  I've never had much luck growing carrots on purpose, who knew I was much more skilled at growing them by mistake.

We ended up with a good little haul of yummy orange friends and they made a delicious addition to our dinner.  Some people around here whined about the unexpected vegetable, but I told them proudly this is something we grew in our garden...even if we didn't know we were doing it at the time.

I'm sure there's an analogy in there somewhere.

Sometimes life gives you weeds, and sometimes it gives you carrots.