I lifted a load for freezing this morning. When I tried to cut and peel them they were as tough as old boots. I would have needed an axe for some of them. Needless to say they are now on the compost heap. Something else I noticed was splits down the side of a lot of them. The seed was sown middle of april, thinned when they needed it, so what went wrong. I have another sowing done the end of may, I hope these are better. I did mix the seed with growmore when I sprinkled them along the drills, I wonder if that affected them, although the early carrots and beets where sown the same day with growmore and the crop has been lovely.