Don’t be a parrot; eat your carrot
“Yes, indeed,” said the junco pecking for seeds in the snow, “every day is a day closer to spring.” That’s my sentiment also. I take every day as it is, but it dawned on me, snow or no snow, I am looking forward to flowers in spring and fresh carrots in June, which as you know are a member of the parsley family.
If nutrition were a competition, which it is not, carrots would be a playoff contender every year. Carrots are an excellent source of fiber, and although you and your friends might not talk about fiber much, a regular dose is essential to a healthy lifestyle. Carrots also are rich in vitamins and antioxidants such as beta-carotene, which our bodies transform into Vitamin A, which I’m sure you and your friends talk about often.
Before the pyramids were built in Egypt, folks like us grew carrots. It supposedly started in Persia, and they were usually purplish, bitter and woody. Somehow, we figured out that boiling them made them more tolerable because instinctively we knew they were nutritious or else why would we persevere with boiling a bitter, woody root.
Nevertheless, caravans and marketeers spread carrot seeds in all directions, and gardeners in new places grew them and developed local varieties. In those days, the roots were many colors – even white and black – except orange. Over centuries, plain folks just like us figured out how to breed tenderer, sweeter roots.
In his 1st century book De Materia Medica, Greek physician Dioscorides (first-rate doctor but terrible at karaoke) mentions three kinds of carrots, all purple. Carrot growing spread into Asia but also across northern Africa, and traveling Moors took carrot seeds to Spain. Traveling seed spreaders spread them through Europe, then to England and onward to Jamestown and eventually to Holtville, California, which considers itself the carrot capitol of the world.
However, it was in Holland in the 17th century, Dutch horticulturists began selective breeding of purple carrots in pursuit of orange ones. One legend maintains they did it in honor of some guy named William of Orange. Maybe, but I offer that they knew that in 250 years or so the national soccer team would proudly wear orange jerseys, so why not go ahead and breed bright orange carrots… and they succeeded by the early 18th century.
Orange became the new purple and the favored color for carrot growers everywhere. China grows the most carrots of any country, and 80 percent of the carrots grown in the United States come from California.
Carrots are common in home gardens. The seeds take maybe three weeks to germinate, so clever gardeners plant radish seeds to mark the carrot area because the radishes will be mature and gone by the time carrot seedlings establish themselves. Carrots prefer loose soil enriched by wood ashes and calcium. Some folks claim carrots grow well near tomatoes or beans.
To plant long varieties such as Imperator, the soil must be loose enough to allow a root to extend eight inches deep or more. Oxheart is a short, plump variety, which would require more space between roots. Chantenay and Uzbek Golden are two other short varieties.
Pusa Asita is a black variety from India, which is possibly the richest source of anthocyanins of any plant in the world, plus it is very long and grows well in hotter climates. Usually carrots perform better in cooler climates like family members celery and cilantro.
You can leave two or three carrots in the ground at the end of the season for making seeds the next year. Snip off the leaves and cover them with mulch during the winter. In spring, the roots will regrow leaves, send up a stalk and eventually make seeds. Or you can buy a packet.
The single best thing about carrots is they are nutritiously easy to grow, they keep well in the refrigerator, they come in colors like a rainbow, and you and your co-workers snacking on them at the same time will sound like a jazzy percussion combo.