A quiz:  How many varieties of carrots are there? 

a) <5

b) 5-10

c) 11-15 

d) >15

Answer:  I counted 67 on The World Carrot Museum Website.  Yes, there is a World Carrot Museum.  And, not only did I count 67 different varieties of carrots, but there is a variety of carrot for every letter in the alphabet!  Yikes, maybe carrots aren’t as easy as I thought!

My experience with carrots:

Carrot sticks:  Usually dry and not very sweet, but you can slather them in veggie dip and they’re pretty good.

Actual carrots:  You have to peel ‘em.  Kind of a pain.

Baby carrots:  Sweet!  These I can snack on.  But when my friend Margot came by to visit and I was eating my newly discovered baby carrots for a snack, she laughed at me. ”You’re eating CARROTS?  Hee, hee, hee, hee.”  Is it weird to eat carrots?  The World Carrot Museum reports that the average person will consume 10.866 carrots in their lifetime.  Maybe not Margot, but that’s ok.

Random Carrot Experience:  In middle school, I decided to dress up like a carrot for Halloween.  I took a huge cardboard box, like refrigerator size, and painted it orange in the shape of a carrot, with holes cut out for my arms.  It seemed like a good idea for a costume.  Surely, no one else would be dressed as an abnormally large orange vegetable.  It was fun until I had to get in and out of my friend’s sister’s Honda hatchback, over and over, as we drove from neighborhood to neighborhood. 

My carrot find this week:  Chantenay carrots.  Also known as French carrots.  Short, stubby little guys.  But tasty sweet.  From The World Carrot Museum: “Chantenay: An old variety originally from France with large diameter roots up to 15-20 cm long.  Good for winter storage, often grown as a baby carrot.”  The farmer selling Chantenay carrots said his wife’s family had carefully cared for this breed of carrot through generations, and it was their family favorite.  Generations! Carefully passing the Chantenay carrot torch.  And here I though a carrot was a carrot was a carrot.

Lingering Childhood Question:  How do you know when to pull them up?  I tried growing them as a kid, but ALWAYS pulled them up too early.

Answer:  When the tops of the carrots start to ‘shoulder-up’ through the dirt.  Where was google when I was 8?

 Do you have a random carrot experience?

Want more veggies?

Last Week: My Childhood Vegetable Nemesis      Next Week: Nettles, people eat these!