| Roses are Red, Carrots are Purple | |
by Judy Sobeloff, from the April 2004 newsletter
“The day is coming
when a single carrot freshly observed will set off a revolution.”
--Paul Cezanne
It’s not your eyes or alternate spectrum lights in the produce department. A glance there nowadays leaves you reeling: blue potatoes, candy-striped beets, and, most recently, rainbow carrots. Is nothing sacred? How confusing for the children of the 21st century learning their colors!
As the saying goes, everything old is new again. Apparently the first carrots were purple, originating in Afghanistan about 5,000 years ago. Drawings on temple walls dated 4,000 years ago show a purple carrot. In fact, carrots weren’t orange until the 16th century when patriotic Dutch farmers bred them to match the Dutch flag (www.carrotmuseum.com).
The carrots I sampled at the Co-op were red, orange, yellow, and green, but rainbow carrots are also available in purple, white, and black. Select them to match your kitchen, your dishes, or your mood. Angry? A dish of black carrots should get your message across.
Two forces appear to be at work with these new carrots. The first is marketing, based on the idea that the array of colors may entice kids to eat their vegetables (www.drgreene.com). I’m not sure the colors are Koolaid-esque enough to attract kids who weren’t already attracted to bright orange carrots, but it’s worth a try. My daughter, Jonna, said she liked the rainbow carrots, but she likes the regular orange ones as well.
The other appeal of rainbow carrots is nutritional, based on the idea that different colored pigments supply different nutrients. (Thus, the white carrot confers the least benefit nutritionally.) My sister, Susan, reports having heard a slogan “Eat a rainbow every day” for health.
According to the Journal Sentinel Web site, “Phytochemicals, the naturally occurring substances in plants thought to promote disease-fighting properties, are also the pigments that give plants their distinctive color.” Orange carrots contain the most beta carotene, purple carrots contain anthocyanin, red carrots contain lycopene, and yellow carrots contain xanthophylis. However, the pigments don’t penetrate deeply through the skin of the carrot, so peeling the carrots removes the particular nutritional benefit (jsonline.com/alive/nutrition).
The obvious question, whether the different colors taste different, seems to depend on the mouth of the beholder. Stacey in the Co-op produce department said that to her, rainbow carrots “taste so distinctive, almost minty sweet.” I thought the red ones were slightly sweeter than the other colors.
While rainbow carrots would presumably work well in any carrot dish, I wanted to make something highlighting their varied colors and chose a simple “Chilled Dill Rainbow Carrot Salad.” The people I served it to enjoyed it, and my friend Jessica said, “Wow, this is the best rainbow carrot salad I've ever tasted!” Hmm. My sister, Debbie, lauded the salad as “so visually beautiful.”
For those who want to learn more about carrots, including carrot jokes, brainteasers, trivia, and oddities such as how to make musical panpipes out of carrots, I recommend the Web site of the World Carrot Museum (www.carrotmuseum.com).
The following is a sampling of carrot facts I learned from the history section of the site. First, a carrot fact from the twentieth century: During World War Two, “it was convenient to [the British government] saddled with a large carrot surplus to give the impression that one developed uncanny night vision from copious consumption of this humble root vegetable...The story goes that the Air Force bragged that the great accuracy of British fighter pilots at night was a result of them being fed enormous quantities of carrots.” In reality, however, the pilots’ accuracy at night was “entirely owed to the highly efficient onboard radar!”
And a carrot fact from the 1st century: Emperor Caligula, “a renowned crazed megalomaniac given to capricious cruelty and harebrained schemes, including [making] his horse, Incitatus, a consul, ... is purported to have once fed the entire Roman Senate a banquet only of carrot dishes.” Perhaps if the dishes were rainbow-colored this would have seemed less cruel.
CHILLED DILL RAINBOW CARROT SALAD (adapted from www.colorfulharvest.com)
2 cups rainbow carrots, thinly sliced
1/2 cup red onions or shallots, diced
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
2-3 Tbsp fresh dill, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
Boil rainbow carrots until tender yet crisp, about two minutes. Rinse under cold water and drain. Combine carrots and onions. Mix remaining ingredients in small bowl until well blended. Pour over carrot mixture and toss well. Refrigerate at least three hours to blend flavors. Makes four servings.
With the recent arrival of baby Benji, Judy Sobeloff is making good use of her uncanny carrot-enhanced night vision.
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