What's Up Doc?

What color are carrots?

Carrots didn't reveal their inner orangeness for almost five thousand years.

The earliest evidence of carrots being used by humans dates from 3000 BC in Afghanistan. These original carrots were purple on the outside and yellow on the inside. The ancient Greeks and Romans cultivated the vegetable, but mostly for medicinal purposes; the carrot was considered a powerful aphrodisiac.

Galen, the famous second-century Roman physician, on the other hand, recommended carrots for expelling wind. He was the first to identify them as separate from their close relative, the parsnip.

As Arab traders spread carrot seed throughout Asia, Africa, and Arabia, carrots blossomed into different shades of purple, white, yellow, red, green, and even black.

The very first orange carrot was grown in sixteenth century Holland, patriotically bred to match the color of the Dutch Royal House of Orange.

By the seventeenth century, the Dutch were the main European producers of carrots and all modern varieties are descended from their four orange ones: Early Half Long, Late Half Long, Scarlet, and Long Orange.

Carrots can be used to make a sort of natural antifreeze.

Iceland once developed a chocolate-flavored carrot. It was withdrawn after eight months.