[Sca-cooks] The Purple Carrot Returns and then Some
Terry Decker
t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net
Fri Nov 26 20:40:33 PST 2004
Queen Anne's Lace is the wild variety of Daucus carota. It's root is white
and is difficult to differentiate from parsnips, so that it was not formally
identified as a seperate plant until the 1st or 2nd Century. Genus Daucus
is of Eurasian origin. While the white Queen Anne's Lace became the
standard European carrot (probably in prehistoric times) while colored
carrots developed in various parts of Asia and the Near East.
The Romans probably ate white carrots, but at least one fresco suggests they
may have known about some of the Asiatic carrots. Unfortunately, I haven't
seen much evidence beyond that. The first reference to yellow carrots is
from an 10th Century Arab text locating them in Asia Minor. An Andalusian
text comments on a taste test between yellow and red carrots (probably
brought from Central Asia during the Islamic Expansion). In taste and
texture, the red was favored.
The Asiatic carrots apparently crossed into Christian Europe from Moorish
Spain in the 13th Century.
The orange carrot is most definitely Dutch. The orange color is probably an
offshoot of trying to develope a sweeter carrot rather than a deliberate
attempt to make an orange carrot. Orange carrots appear in late 16th
Century Flemish paintings and the orange varietals being bred in Holland
were recorded in the 17th Century.
BTW,The Dutch introduced the cultivation of colored carrots to England in
the 14th Century.
Bear
>
> After my original inquiry, I did a little bit of research on the history
> of the carrot, and it
> appears that the carrots of antiquity were, for the most part,
> unpalatable, and used for medicinal
> purposes mainly. Apparently, carrots could be found in red, white, yellow,
> purple and even green.
> A few references claim that it was the Dutch who bred the orange, sweet
> carrot, in homage to one
> of their national colors. This is not to say that other carrots of the
> middle ages were not sweet
> (I believe the Romans grew sweet carrots), merely that the first carrots
> discovered were not
> sweet, and required a 'green thumb' to make them so. A few botanical
> references indicate that
> what we know as the modern carrot today is a cultivated form of the common
> weed known as Queen
> Anne's Lace.
>
> William de Grandfort
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