I have always heard and done my carrots to hold them in sand, but most of the time to be honest, i either can or dry them.. but they will hold for a good while in the cellar, also for what its worth, I also start carrots in the fall, let them get going and then on the frosts, give them a deep bedding out, then cover the area with the poles for spring hooping (but not the cover itself) and then in about late feb or Early march, we shovel off the snow, put the plastic on and let it melt out and warm up and then you can have very early spring carrots by pulling back the straw cover, I have had two successful years and one failure year, I think I didn't give enough straw cover on the one year or maybe to many freeze/thaws that winter? but the winters with good snow cover worked well, and I have a big patch covered for this spring.

I'm not sure I understand correctly...

The carrots were seeds in the fall...
They wee little when the snow came and you would have covered them.
You then created a solarium of sorts in February which allowed them to start growing again?
You were then able to harvest them in the spring?

How cold does it get where you live?

they were seeds in aug as the heat broke in the evening, they grew uncovered till sept, then covered till nov, at that point about size of a finger, then covered and yup for the rest, ottawa valley ontario, zone 5a, coldest about 30 below.

farmgal - you have the neatest tricks up your sleeves!!

Right now I freeze, can, or dry my carrots but am planning a root cellar for next fall.
My root cellar expert (my mother) has told me to store them in VERY DRY sand.
I have read about peat moss working but haven't actually met anyone who does it.

Thanks anita but i had never heard of doing the carrots that way till a couple years ago and then it was on a gardening program on the radio and a local to me had called in with great success at winter sowning and talked about the carrots, so i gave it a try and was very pleased with it..

I have always heard and done my carrots to hold them in sand, but most of the time to be honest, i either can or dry them.. but they will hold for a good while in the cellar, also for what its worth, I also start carrots in the fall, let them get going and then on the frosts, give them a deep bedding out, then cover the area with the poles for spring hooping (but not the cover itself) and then in about late feb or Early march, we shovel off the snow, put the plastic on and let it melt out and warm up and then you can have very early spring carrots by pulling back the straw cover, I have had two successful years and one failure year, I think I didn't give enough straw cover on the one year or maybe to many freeze/thaws that winter? but the winters with good snow cover worked well, and I have a big patch covered for this spring.

Farmgal,
what do you use for a cover for the hooping in Feb/March?

Two layer heavy duty thick plastic, clipped on bent metal hoops, that cover rebar pushed into the ground, so there is only a bit of the metal in the ground but the rebar helps make is stronger to hold it in place. Then I have logs on the ends that hold the plastic in place, so I can lift them off and unroll it, if its gets to be a really hot day in the spring.

We tried to store carrots in sand in rubbermaid containers in a "cold room" a few years ago. They also went bad. Now that Denob mentioned it; I'm not sure if the sand was dry per se... We will have a garden again this year so we'll have to give it another try if we have a good crop.

I've posted our raised bed construction somewhere else in the gardening section... I think their design may be conducive to what you've described for "winter" growing. Will have to give it a try anyway.

http://s877.beta.photobucket.com/user/Dangphool/story/411

I was also told to just shake off any loose dirt but basically not to clean them.
This is only what I have been told though...haven't tried it out myself yet.