[Sca-cooks] Yellow carrots?

[Terry Decker]

The white ones are the European carrot although it probably originated in
Central Asia.  The reds and purples came out of Central Asia probably about
the time of the Islamic expansion.  The first reference to yellow carrots is
10th or 11th Century from Asia Minor.  The yellow carrot is related to the
red, but with only minimal amounts of the chemical that causes the red
pigmentation.  At least one Andalusian writer considered the yellow carrots
inferior to the red.

The colored carrots entered Christian Europe from Spain around the 13th
Century.  They are believed to have been introduced into England in the 15th
Century by Dutch refugees.

The orange carrots we eat today are a Dutch hybrid developed in the 16th
Century.  All of our modern orange carrots come from about five strains of
Dutch carrots first cataloged in the 17th Century.

Bear



>I just found a bunch of yellow carrots in the market. Anyone know how
>they are related to the medieval "white" ones?
>
>UlfR
>