We’ve always eaten a lot of carrots. I mostly served them raw, because they’re good for you, my family likes them that way, and they’re quick and easy. Everyone preferred the sweeter baby carrots, but I seldom purchased those. Mostly we ate the bigger, more bitter carrots.

Upon coming to Chile, we we’ve been amazed at the sweetness of the regular carrots. Even the huge carrots are really sweet. So, we’ve been eating a LOT of carrots!

A few weeks ago, I got a large mesh bag full of carrots at La Vega. The contents of the mesh bag completely filled two wal-mart sized bags. It was a lot of carrots. I didn’t have room in my fridge for them all. Indeed, I only had room for two gallon-sized ziplocks full. The rest sat on the loggia (laundry room) floor, and we started eating carrots at practically every meal. After about a few days, it hit me: I could lacto-ferment these!

I had made carrot relish before with grated carrots. But I really didn’t want to grate all those carrots! I did some digging and found that I could lacto-ferment carrot sticks — the fermentation process would just take longer (about a week.)

I processed 3 jars full, and they were a big hit. So last week, we made more. I experimented with two types: Garlic and Honey Cinnamon.

For both types, I…

Cut carrots into sticks, like I normally would, fit for munching on at the table, except I cut them the same length so that I could pack two layers tightly into jars.

For the Garlic Carrots, add to the jar…

2 cloves garlic, minced

about 1 Tbsp salt for a quart-sized jar

water to cover the carrots

For the Honey Cinnamon Carrots, add to the jar…

1/4 cup of honey, dissolved in 1 cup of water

1 cinnamon stick (pack the carrots around it); another time I used powdered cinnamon

about 1 Tbsp salt for a quart-sized jar

add enough water to cover the carrots

As with all lacto-fermented products, it’s a good idea to leave about 1 inch of air space at the top of the jar. I didn’t leave quite that much and so “burped” the jars every couple of days during the fermenting process.