Holy Carrots!

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We have recently had root veggies in many beautiful colors. Before we joined the CSA, I had never seen a carrot any color other than orange. Curiosity lead me to a virtual museum called World Carrot Museum which has an overwhelming amount of information.


Some highlights are:
Carrots have been cultivated for about the past millennia – starting in Afghanistan. Initially they were yellow and purple – the orange ones likely originated from the Netherlands about 600 or 700 years later. The museum refutes claims that the popularity of orange carrots has anything to do with a reaction to William of Orange – despite that Dutch leader, William of Orange, lead the multinational uprising against the invasion of the Spanish Inquisition in the late 16^th century. Disproving the link between the popularity of orange carrots exploding during the same time as multinational support for the leader of Orange
is a tall order.

Different colors of carrots each have unique nutritional properties related to their pigments:
Orange, yellow and red carrots are thought to be good for vision is different ways as the chemicals they contain can be converted to different compounds that are found in the retina. White carrots are frequently used in baby foods. Purple and black carrots contain significant amounts of anti-oxidant compounds and black carrots additionally are thought to have anti-bacterial and anti-fungicidal properties.

Carrots are versatile instruments – able to take part in both the wind and percussion sections of an orchestra. They are featured as the main instruments in several veggie-themed musical groups all over the world.


During WWII carrots were featured heavily in many victory gardens and were widely used as substitutes for other ingredients that were more difficult to procure and store. The carrot was promoted as “Doctor Carrot,” not only ample and versatile but healthy. Some slogans read “Carrots keep you healthy and help you see in a black out.” Who knows? Maybe carrots had a big hand in helping win the war.

Most of the information and many of the images that I have posted here can be found at the following link:
http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/index.html
I highly recommend the Carrot Museum for more information than I thought possible on our pointy, colorful veggies.

Corrielle Caldwell