DID YOU KNOW THIS ABOUT CARROTS?

Before I relay the following information, let me start off by saying that I DO NOT EAT CARROTS!  The modern carrot is too far removed from its original wild ancestor for me to consider it a viable nutrient source.

The wild ancestors of the carrot are likely to have come from Iran and Afghanistan, which remain the centre of diversity of Daucus carota, the wild carrot.

Selective breeding over the centuries of a naturally occurring subspecies of the wild carrot, Daucus carota subsp. sativus, to reduce bitterness, increase sweetness and minimise the woody core, has produced the familiar garden vegetable.

The modern carrot originated in Afghanistan about 1100 years ago. Carrots were originally purple with a thin root, then a mutant occurred which removed the purple pigmentation resulting on a new race of yellow carrots.

The stabilised and domesticated orange carrot does date from the sixteenth century Netherlands.
Throughout the Classical Period and the Middle Ages writers constantly confused carrots and parsnips. This may seem odd given that the average carrot is about six inches long and bright orange while a parsnip is off white and can grow 3 feet, but this distinction was much less obvious before early modern plant breeders got to work.

The orange carrot is a product of the 16th and 17th centuries probably in the Low Countries. Its original colour varied between dirty white and pinkish purple.

Most carrot cultivars are about 88% water, 7% sugar, 1% protein, 1% fibre, 1% ash, and 0.2% fat. Free sugars in carrot include sucrose, glucose, xylose and fructose.

The variety of carrot found in north India is rare everywhere except in Central Asia and other contiguous regions, and is now growing in popularity in larger cosmopolitan cities in South India. The north Indian carrot is pink-red comparable to plum or raspberry or deep red apple in colour (without a touch of yellow or blue) while most other carrot varieties in the world vary from orange to yellow in colour.

Eastern carrots were domesticated in Central Asia, probably in modern-day Iran and Afghanistan in the 10th century, or possibly earlier. Specimens of the eastern carrot that survive to the present day are commonly purple or yellow, and often have branched roots. The purple colour common in these carrots comes from anthocyanin pigments.

The western carrot emerged in the Netherlands in the 17th century.

Certain cultivars of carrots have been bred to be used at the "baby" stage. One such cultivar is 'Amsterdam Forcing'. This process was developed at Beechnut Farms, bought by Zellwin Farms.
However these are not baby cut carrots, which are regular carrots cut down to size.

2006, nearly three-quarters of the fresh baby-cut carrots produced in the United States came from Bakersfield, California. Bolthouse Farms and Grimmway Farms are the world's two largest growers, processors, and shippers of baby-cut carrots.The Green Giant company, which resells carrots from Bolthouse Farms, markets their product as "baby-cut carrots".  Bolthouse Farms is owned by Campbell soup company.

To reduce microbial contamination, cocktail carrots may be treated with chlorine.Those that are will be subsequently rinsed with potable water to remove the excess chlorine before being packaged.