Carrot

The carrot originates from Afghanistan.

Carrots can be eaten raw (as a snack, or grated in salads) or they can be chopped and boiled, fried or steamed. Carrots are often used in soups and stews or they are used in baby foods.

Carrots are known for their high content of carotene (an orange pigment).

Names

Scientific
   Daucus carota
English
   Carrot
   Common carrot
Dutch
   Bospeen
   Peen
   Waspeen
   Winterpeen
   Wortel
Spanish
   Zanahoria
French
   Carotte
German
   Karotte
   Mohrrübe
   Wurzel
Italian
   Carota

Taxonomy

Genus
   Daucus
Family
   Apiaceae
Order
   Apiales

Basic information and facts

Origin:

Afghanistan

Distribution:

Highest production of carrots is in China, Russia and the United States. Common in many European countries.

Annual, biennial, or perennial:

Carrots are biennial plants. In the first year they grows leaves in the spring and summer. The taproot then grows and stores sugars for the plant to produce flowers in the second year.

Flowers:

The carrot can produce a flowering stem of about 1 meter tall. This stem carries an umbel of white flowers.

Root:

The edible part of a carrot is the taproot. There are two types of carrots: Eastern and Western. Western carrots are often orange, but some varieties have different colors. The Eastern type are often yellow or purple with branched roots.

Climate and weather:

Pollination:

Carrot is an insect-pollinated plant. Bees are important pollinators.

Height:

A flowering carrot plant can be about 1 meter tall.

Propagation:

Carrots are grown from seed.

Insect pests:

An important pest of carrots is the carrot fly.

Diseases:

Nematodes:

Carrots can be damaged by Root-Knot Nematodes (Meloidogyne sp.)

Harvesting:

Carrots are easily uprooted by hand picking. In large scale production, machines are used to uproot the carrots.

Uses:

Carrots can be eaten raw (as a snack, or grated in salads) or they can be chopped and boiled, fried or steamed. Carrots are often used in soups and stews or they are used in baby foods.

Proverbs and Quotes

Proverbs

If there is no apple one eats a little carrot.
‘Carrot and stick’ refers to offering a combination of rewards (the carrot) and punishment (the stick) to induce behavior.
‘To dangle a carrot in front of a donkey’ is ‘to tempt someone’.

Quotes

The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution. (Paul Cezanne)
Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie. (Jim Davis)
I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number of carats in a diamond. (Mae West)

Did you know that?

Long ago, carrots were not grown for their roots but for their aromatic leaves and seeds (just like related plants such as parsley, dill , fennel and cumin).
Many carrot varieties are orange, but carrots can also be white, yellow, red or purple.
A famous Dutch dish is ‘Hutspot”, a stew of carrots and onions. Many Dutch still eat this on 3rd October to celebrate their victory (3 October 1574) against Spanish soldiers in the Eighty Year’s War during the ‘The Siege of Leiden’.

Recipes

Hutspot

(A traditional Dutch meal mad of carrots and onions)

Ingredients:

Onions, Potatoes (twice the amount of onions), Carrots (three times the amount of onions), Butter, Smoked sausages, Salt & Pepper

How to prepare:

Peel onions, carrots and potatoes. Slice them in pieces and in a small amount of salted water until they

Crop categories

Vegetables
Root vegetables
Food crops
Temperate crops

Pictures

Carrots