Fall harvest

About a week ago, I was in the backyard with the kids, and I sauntered over to the garden. My garden didn't do well at all this year, with the super-high temperatures, and lack of rainfall throughout the summer. I will not confirm, nor deny the fact that my laissez-faire style of gardening may not have helped the outcome of the harvest. Let me say.... ummmm, that I hate to weed a garden. It seems to be the most useless thing to do, since the weeds just keep growing! I pick my tomatoes and check on my gladiolus growing in amongst the odd tall-growing weed.

So, with that admitted and out of the way, I'll show you what I discovered that day when I sauntered over to check on the garden.
My row of carrots had nice, green tops, so I thought I'd just pull one to check on them. When I pulled on the carrot top, a small, yet perfectly formed little carrot followed. It was the cutest, sweetest thing I'd ever seen! The carrot so orange, the top so green, and the cutest little wrinkles all around. (Yes, this was my first season growing carrots, can you tell?)
Once I pulled up one cute little carrot, I just had to keep going..... Sweetie helped me out, and before we knew it, we had a nice little bunch of carrots. LITTLE being the operative word. The largest was about 4 inches long, the smallest being just a tiny little orange hair on the end of the greens.

The carrots were boiled and coated with honey and cinnamon with dinner, where Sweetie didn't care for the intense, fresh carrot flavour, while Monkey savoured every bite and finished off Sweetie's as well! Mac was on the afternoon shift, so he enjoyed his meal while we all slept, cozy in our beds, so I didn't hear the verdict from him on our carrot success (or failure?).

While it was exciting to have a bundle of carrots, it was a little disappointing to have them end up so small. I'm no super gardener, so I turn it over to you: Did I harvest too early? Or did I harvest on time, but the end result was less than stellar due to the weather (and weed) conditions? Your input is greatly appreciated!

Now to visit the garden to harvest the mystery squash growing where I planted my green beans.....