We grow carrots for a variety of customers throughout the UK who supply major supermarkets and the prepared foods industry. We grow early carrots under polythene for harvest from late June, second early carrots usually harvested through the summer months then our main crop carrots for harvest through out winter months.
Eaten in almost every household across the UK, carrots are a popular part of everyone’s diet. Taproot is the most commonly eaten part of the carrot, however sometimes the greens can be eaten too. Carrots are widely used in many cuisines, particular when preparing salads, and as a tradition in some regional cuisines carrot salads are dished up. Despite this, carrots aren’t simply just a vegetable, they have some unusual and interesting facts that people may not be aware of. Some of these include:
First and foremost, when people first started to grow carrots, it was not as a food source. Instead, it was as medicine, for a variety of ailments. When did the first carrots appear then? Well, through historical documentation and paintings, carrots can be tracked back an astonishing 5,000 years ago! Although, because people mistook carrots for parsnips, no one knows exactly when carrots first started appearing. As for nutrition, carrots make for an amazing source of vitamin A, and in a single carrot provides over 200% of your daily requirement. This is because of beta-carotene, a natural chemical found in carrots that the body changes into vitamin A.
Carrots can come in many different sizes, but there are also many different colours that carrots can be, which not many people know. Over 100 species of carrots are out there, and some of the colours include orange, red, white, purple and even yellow. The name “carrot” itself comes from the Greek word “karotan”, and the chemical beta-carotene found in carrots was in fact named for the carrot itself. Possibly the most unusual trait carrots have is that, in large consumptions, they are capable of causing people’s skin to turn a yellowish-orange colour, notably on the soles of your feet or on your palms. This is called carotenemia, however it is easily repairable by lowering your intake of carrots, and it does require a huge number of carrots to be eaten as well, so it shouldn’t be anything to worry about.
