[Sca-cooks] The Purple Carrot Returns and then Some

[Sue Clemenger]

So...are the non-orange carrots also full of beta carotene (pardon the 
possible/probable misspellings on that), or is that just a side-benefit 
of the color? (I've long been told that dark orange veggies/fruits are 
higher in this than others, but I don't know the particulars).
--maire, curious

Terry Decker wrote:
<snipped>

> 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.