I've learned something about carrots

Back in the spring, I dutifully thinned my carrots as one is supposed to, so that the remaining ones had room to grow. I tossed the toothpick-sized thinned carrots on the compost heap and ignored them. Now, months later, I went out to hack down some tall weeds that were sprouting from the compost heap, and I found several full-size, plump carrots just lying on the surface of the heap. My plucked thinnings had kept right on growing, above ground. They were a bit limp, but otherwise just like the carrots growing in the ground. Isn't that weird? I had heard, of course, that carrots remain alive after you pick them, but now I have proof of it. Gardening is so cool. I learn something every day.