by Lisa Giroday, Sandra Lopuch and Sam Philips | Carrots are delicious, sweet and nutritious root veggies and one of the most satisfying crops to harvest in the garden. In our educational coaching sessions with kids, they especially get into plucking up the full-sized carrots that they seeded in the spring. So do adults, equally. While carrots can take a while to mature, they’re totally worth the wait. Right about now is prime carrot harvesting time, which means it’s also prime time to sow carrots seeds to reap a fall and winter harvest. We like to choose a cultivar that’s cold hardy and a good storage type. We prefer Bolero – a fat, orange, beefy carrot with the sexy Spanish name.

Wild and cultivated carrots belong to the species Daucus carota. Historically, before carrots were ever cultivated for their taproot, the tops were utilized for their leaves and seeds, and they were also used for medicinal purposes. A few carrot relatives are still grown for their leaves and seeds, such as parsley, fennel, dill, and cumin.

Wild carrots are indigenous to Central Asia and Europe. Their roots are paler, smaller, and more tough/bitter than their domestic counterparts. What was the colour of the first cultivated carrot? You have to go back 1,000 years to Afghanistan, where the roots came in shades of pale yellow and purple – not orange. Before carrots were ever cultivated, wild types abounded (seeds have been found in Europe that date 5,000 years back). They are still found today in the world’s temperate regions, and purple and white types still grow wild in Afghanistan.

For details on how to grown carrots, check out our article we posted this time last year.

THE VICTORY GARDENS ARCHIVE