Carrots are one of the most common vegetables in the kitchen and one of the most fundamental ingredients in the culinary arts. I love carrots! They are easily one of the most versatile of vegetables, carrots can be blanched, steamed, sautéed, roasted, or just enjoyed raw. They're also an important flavoring ingredient for stocks, sauces and soups.
Carrots are a root vegetable, the domesticated carrot is a cultivar of the wild carrot known as "Queen Anne's lace," which is native to temperate parts of Europe and southwest Asia. It has been bred for its greatly enlarged and more palatable, less woody-textured edible taproot, but is still the same species.
The term ‘carrot’ also applies to the long, edible, usually tapering taproot of the domesticated form. These taproots commonly are orange in color, but may be a variety of colors depending on the cultivar, including white, red, black, yellow, or purple. They have a crisp texture when fresh.
I’ve had many carrot questions come in to the website over the last several weeks so I am going to answer the most common questions in today’s Garden Tech Support Tuesday post.
Carrots are a root vegetable, the domesticated carrot is a cultivar of the wild carrot known as "Queen Anne's lace," which is native to temperate parts of Europe and southwest Asia. It has been bred for its greatly enlarged and more palatable, less woody-textured edible taproot, but is still the same species.
The term ‘carrot’ also applies to the long, edible, usually tapering taproot of the domesticated form. These taproots commonly are orange in color, but may be a variety of colors depending on the cultivar, including white, red, black, yellow, or purple. They have a crisp texture when fresh.
I’ve had many carrot questions come in to the website over the last several weeks so I am going to answer the most common questions in today’s Garden Tech Support Tuesday post.
Q. Mike K. of Richmond, VA asks, “Can I eat the green leaves of a carrot?”
A. Yes! Most people used to believe that carrot tops were poisonous but that is simple not true at all – I’ve eaten the tops of carrots and I’m still around! They are highly nutritious, rich in protein, minerals and vitamins and oxalates. The tops of the carrots are loaded with potassium which can make them slightly bitter. Carrot tops are rather high in dihydroisocoumarins, which can have blood thinning effects.
Sprinkle some chopped carrot tops into a salad or on top of any dish for added taste and a nice boost of nutrition. I have a friend that likes to make carrot top pesto!
Q. Helen I. of Detroit, MI wonders, “Do they help you see in the dark?”
A. Yes, and No! Carrots do help you see in the dark, but can only improve your night vision if you are deficient in Vitamin A. Carrots are high in Vitamin A, and a deficiency in this nutrient can cause some difficulty seeing in dim light. Vitamin A is essential for the formation of the chemical retinal, whose presence in the retina is necessary for vision. Our eyes have two kinds of light sensitive cells: the rods and the cones. The rods are the cells we rely on to see in dim light. They are sensitive to Vitamin A deficiency, because it can cause a shortage of retinal. The retina is the light-sensing part of the eye that holds the rods and cones, which contain enzymes that absorb light and allow us to see. When light strikes the retinal molecule, it changes its shape. This activates a cascade of chemical reactions that informs the brain that light has entered the eye. When the levels of light sensitive molecules are low, due to Vitamin A deficiency, there will not be enough retinal to detect the light at night. During the day there is enough light to produce vision, despite low levels of retinal.
So it's only night vision that can be improved by eating carrots. The rods provide black and white vision and respond in dim light while the cones provide color vision and respond to bright light. Vitamin A helps the retina tell black from white and provides for color vision. It also helps us see in dim light or at night. When you go into a darkened theater after being out in the bright light, your eyes are able to adapt because of the vitamin A that you have stored in your body. So really the answer is they do help you see in the dark, but can only improve your night vision if you are deficient in Vitamin A.
Q. Vera D. way off in American Samoa asks, “How do carrots make seeds? I want to harvest and save the seeds each year.”
A. Seed saving is a wonderful way to expand our gardening experience and also a great way to protect many heirloom varieties from completely disappearing! Carrots however, are not as easy to ‘seed save’ as other garden favorites because they are biennial plants and only flower every two years. This means that they only seed every two years.
In the first year the plant produces the edible root and a leafy top. If a carrot plant is left in the ground for another year, it flowers and seeds are produced. Sexual reproduction in carrots is therefore not different from other flowering plants. Pollen is produced and transferred to the female part of the flower, the stigma.
The pollen grain then delivers the sperm cells within it to the ovary via a long tube where fertilization takes place. The seeds are tiny - a teaspoon can hold almost 2000! The birds-nest-shaped fruit cluster of carrot has a remarkable mechanism for seed dispersal. The stalks are hydroscopic, so that when conditions are dry and suitable for seed dispersal they bend outward, exposing the fruits to wind and animals; when conditions are wet, they bend inwards, forming the familiar bird’s nest structure, which protects the seeds.
When the tops die back, the plant uses the stored food to grow new foliage and the flower stalk the following spring -- and it's that extra food stored in the root that makes the carrot such a tasty treat.
A. Seed saving is a wonderful way to expand our gardening experience and also a great way to protect many heirloom varieties from completely disappearing! Carrots however, are not as easy to ‘seed save’ as other garden favorites because they are biennial plants and only flower every two years. This means that they only seed every two years.
In the first year the plant produces the edible root and a leafy top. If a carrot plant is left in the ground for another year, it flowers and seeds are produced. Sexual reproduction in carrots is therefore not different from other flowering plants. Pollen is produced and transferred to the female part of the flower, the stigma.
The pollen grain then delivers the sperm cells within it to the ovary via a long tube where fertilization takes place. The seeds are tiny - a teaspoon can hold almost 2000! The birds-nest-shaped fruit cluster of carrot has a remarkable mechanism for seed dispersal. The stalks are hydroscopic, so that when conditions are dry and suitable for seed dispersal they bend outward, exposing the fruits to wind and animals; when conditions are wet, they bend inwards, forming the familiar bird’s nest structure, which protects the seeds.
When the tops die back, the plant uses the stored food to grow new foliage and the flower stalk the following spring -- and it's that extra food stored in the root that makes the carrot such a tasty treat.
Q. Webster N. in Franklin, NJ has an interesting question, “I want carrots that are sweet, I know that they contain carbs, but my home grown carrots were not very sweet so how do grow them sweeter? I've tried growing different varieties and harvesting early and late, but always the same result: boring carrots with very little flavor.”
A. That was a long question and I’m gonna hit you right back with a long answer! All carrots (like many vegetables) contain naturally occurring sugars. Carrots contain both carbohydrates and sugar. The word carbohydrate is an umbrella term for single or multiple sugar molecules. Single sugar molecules are known as monosaccharides and include glucose, fructose and galactose. Carrots do contain carbohydrates, because they contain the naturally occurring, simple sugars fructose and glucose. The carbohydrates and sugars found naturally in fruits and vegetables are considered a healthier source than those from refined and processed sources.
When you eat your carbs and sugars from a vegetable, they are accompanied by vitamins, minerals and fiber. When a substantial amount of fiber accompanies the digestion of sugars and carbs, the effect of the sugar on your blood glucose is reduced. Carrots tend to be sweeter if grown in cooler periods and climates, and gain more sugars as they mature in cool conditions.
When above-ground plants do well and root crops do poorly, it's generally due to heavily compacted soil. Imagine trying to push your little self through dense clay! Poor taste in carrots can also be due to an overabundance of nutrients (especially the most common of the Big Three plant foods); timing; the weather during the growing season; and variety choice.
Let's start—as all good gardeners should—with the soil. You can't expect to sow carrot seed in rock hard clay (especially clay that you've been further compacting with your big feet) and get anything other than some green growth up top and a small, unhappy and misshapen rear end underground. Carrots require the absolute loosest soil of pretty much anything we grow.
That's a raised bed (where the soil is never walked on) with excellent drainage at the very least. Even better would be a raised bed into which you have mixed a good amount of something to loosen and lighten the soil, like perlite (a mined, volcanic mineral that's popped into little balls that look like Styrofoam) or a soil-free mix designed for seed-starting.
Better than that would be a nice deep container with excellent drainage filled with (ideally) one-third soil-free mix, one-third perlite and one-third light, screened compost. This is not a place for any kind of {quote} 'topsoil' or garden soil—even if your garden soil is naturally sandy. (But if that is the case, try growing some carrots in a raised bed of that sandy soil plus some compost.)
Nutrients: carrots are the opposite of heavy feeders; too much of any nutrient, even supplied in organic form, can make them taste woody and look hairy. This is especially true of nitrogen, which makes for the worst tasting carrots—so don't use any kind of manure or chemical fertilizer. Two inches of high-quality compost worked into the soil (or even better, into a soil-free mix) should be all the food they need. If you must add something, carrots do like a little phosphorus and potassium (the P and K members of the N-P-K scale), but go light.
Carrot seed germinates best in warm soil, the roots grow best in warm (but not hot) weather and the taste is always best when those roots are harvested after a cold night. This makes late summer the ideal time to start them. On average, it takes carrots about 70 days to mature. So if I (in my Zone 8B Central Texas Garden) planted some seeds on October 1st, they would sprout right away in the warm soil, the green tops would love the sun, and then the nights should be getting cool by harvest time. October 15th would be better, and even as late as November 1and December would be ideal, insuring that I could harvest after the kind of cold night/light frost that really concentrates the sugars. Now that is in Zone 8, but you are in New Jersey so that may be Zone 6 which would mean you look at planting from July 1st to August 1st.
If you MUST plant in the Spring, I strongly suggest you do so in a container that's big enough for the roots to go down nice and deep but manageable enough for you to move outdoors easily. Sow the seeds while the container is inside, then move it outside after the carrots have sprouted.
No matter what or when: soak the growing medium really well, sow the seeds thickly, cover with the tiniest amount of soil free mix and then either mist the surface morning and night (outdoor plantings exposed to sun) or cover with clear plastic wrap (indoor sowing in a container for moving outdoors after germination). And remember the words of the Great Jedi Master Gardener Yoda, “If wrap you choose, remove it when first sprouts appear.”
Keep misting every morning until the sprouts all have some green leaves. Then thin them until the remaining plants are several inches apart in all directions (the more room between the remaining plants the better quality carrots you'll pull) and begin watering normally. Mulch with compost or a thin layer of shredded leaves to prevent weeds.
Again, no matter what or when, keep the seed packet handy and harvest a test carrot exactly when the plants reach the Days to Maturity indicated. If the root is light in color, wait to harvest the rest—they're still immature. If the color is right but the taste isn't there, you waited too long. For the sweetest flavor, harvest first thing in the morning, preferably after a cool night.
Keep misting every morning until the sprouts all have some green leaves. Then thin them until the remaining plants are several inches apart in all directions (the more room between the remaining plants the better quality carrots you'll pull) and begin watering normally. Mulch with compost or a thin layer of shredded leaves to prevent weeds.
Again, no matter what or when, keep the seed packet handy and harvest a test carrot exactly when the plants reach the Days to Maturity indicated. If the root is light in color, wait to harvest the rest—they're still immature. If the color is right but the taste isn't there, you waited too long. For the sweetest flavor, harvest first thing in the morning, preferably after a cool night.
Often you can also get good results by selecting to grow a particular variety of carrot. Most sources consider the blunt-tipped Nantes types to be sweeter and more reliable for home growers than the long and slender Imperator types commonly found in supermarkets. The somewhat short and stubby Danvers and Chantenay types are also good bets for backyard growers. Or for some real fun try growing Parisian or Parisian Market Carrots – they form carrots that are about the size of common red globe radishes. They are fun added to a salad!
Well, I am running long again! I still have many more carrot questions to answer so look for part 2 of carrot questions next Tuesday in the Garden Tech Support Post.
Happy Gardening!!
Well, I am running long again! I still have many more carrot questions to answer so look for part 2 of carrot questions next Tuesday in the Garden Tech Support Post.
Happy Gardening!!
RSS Feed
