Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label What is the best way to plant carrots

The Humble Carrot

  The humble carrot is a great example of how a single species can express itself in many different ways. The humble carrot is a great example of how a single species can express itself in many different ways. The wild species from the Middle East from which carrot is derived is barely more of a root than a parsley plant and like many modern vegetables started as a medicinal herb. The oldest barely domesticated forms show increasing root size and a wider variety of colours, including white, yellow, orange, red, purple and black. As the crop was taken outward to Europe and Asia its diversity of forms increased, with roots the size of a man’s arm to tiny round shapes. The final push toward industrial salad types saw plants with rapid growth and high fertiliser response under perfect conditions (regular watering and perfect sandy soil) allowing crops of tender and mild tasting roots suitable for munching straight from the bag to be churned out year round. For a long time I suspected thi