what is the diff in horse carrots...?

COOLTRIKERCHICK

just came back from the little market in the next village.....to get my fruit and veg..... and i asked him about horse carrots..... and he said he can get them no problem ....:j ... so this will save me going about 15 miles to get them....

so i have ordered a sack for next week..... plus they are cheaper :T

they are £2.20 with him.. he said the nets are between 28 - 30 lb in weight

he was sayng the only diff is that they could be broke, mis-shaped or very large carrots.... ( still taste the same )

so then he started going through his carrots.... and give me a load of broken carrots..... which he said people dont want...

i lovee it when you get freebies.....

so next week might even be cheeky and ask him has he got any freebies for my chickens ...... i am not lying i do have chickens ....

really do need to find cheaper food to make up for the rise in butter ...flour....etc....

just worked it out...... £2.20 divided by 28 ( least weight in sack) = .07857....

so it works out at 8p lb...... blooming brilliant.....

so any peeps that go to markets for their fruit and veg etc... might be worth asking about horse/pony carrots

anniestar

We used to get horse carrots they are great. Also we used to get horse apples lovely apples some smaller and less "perfect" than you would normally see but at less than half the price and very tasty whenever we come across a farm selling either we are in straight away. Actully now that DH is working in rural Cheshire I must give him his orders to go and seek out some bargains!

trying-very-trying

Thanks as, I was going to describe these apples, but you've done it for me. They can be any variety of eating apple, and it's worth just asking if you don't see them, because sometimes, especially nearer the end of the day, the stall holder will just give you a box, that he has been adding any bruised fruit to. That sounds strange, but I know what I mean.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

just to let you know.. i had my sack of carrots today..and they were £2.20

and they were quite small..... well average size..... the only diif was that they were not shinny clean like in the supermarkets etc....

so tomorrow will be blanching carrots most of the day....

i also asked him if he had any 'waste' for my chickens.. and i had a big box of adds and sods so to speak......

a few whole cauli's etc... ok some of the things are only fit for the chickens....which is great as it does save on food for them.....

so well pleased.......

geordie_joe

I was passing my local greengrocer tonight and saw they had HUGE sacks of carrots for next to nothing.

I was very tempted to grab one, to freeze. But the little voice in my head said "Don't be silly, your not strong enough to get it home, if you did it would take a month to scrape/chop and freeze them, AND you'd need a new freezer.

Then I noticed the sign said "Horse Carrots"

So the question is, what is a horse carrot? Presumably they are meant to be eaten by horses, but they looked just like ordinary carrots to me. Not "farm fresh", but still a few weeks life left in them.

Mojisola

They're usually outgrades so you will find funny shapes, slug and carrot root fly damage and maybe some rots. If you're happy to sort through and cut out any damaged bits, they're good value.

Pink.

Hi geordie joe,

There's an earlier thread on horse carrots that may help so I've added yours to it to keep the replies together.

Pink

Mr_Proctalgia

I can help here! - I have first hand experience of driving and delivering the poor people who worked in one of the biggest "Carrot Factories" in the country. Pony Carrots are indeed miss-shapes, there is little wrong with them except that they fail on the visual and aesthetic values that the supermarkets want. So they end up on the "Pony Line" and are usually netted up in 10 kilo bags.

The whole set up is an eye opener, tractor after tractor load of 40 ft trailers tip endless amounts of carrots into a huge continuous washing machine where they leave and are graded by conveyors and holes to various sizes, the quality control is all done by hand and eye (They go at some pace as well). The misfits, are thrown down a chute to another conveyor or straight into a 1 tonne box and off they go to another line for further sorting. the only changes I used to see were when the bags changed from one brand to another, all the carrots were the same.

I would add that they were sticklers for hygiene and the place was spotless regardless of who they were packing for, the only product that went in unwashed was some of the really huge pony carrots that failed at the first sieving before the washers got them.

It may be of interest to some that they packed UK carrots for usually 47 weeks of of the 52 available, regardless of what you think about intensive farming, that is some going.

I hope this helps.

HeidiBoo_2

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horseykitty

Hopefully all you money saving fans won't be rushing off to your local horse feed supplier and nabbing all the pony carrots - leave some for us poor old horse owners who need them to supplement our horses/ponies diets during the winter. A couple of my local dealers have run out in the last few days and I've been forced to buy my four legged friends orange treats from Sainsbury - seriously not funny when a 78p bag will do just one day.