Comments on: Purple graze?

Purple graze?

TheophileEscargot — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 04:39:39 -0800

Purple carrots are to be sold by a UK supermarket. But it's orange carrots that are the gimmick. Most wild carrots are purple or white. Orange carrots were created by patriotic 16th Century Dutch farmers from a mutant variety, to match their national colour.

By: jpburns

jpburns — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 04:56:49 -0800

Arrrrr???

By: mdn

mdn — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 05:03:01 -0800

That second link lists the little bullet point that "carrot juice was used to make butter a more appealing color in the middle ages," which is confusing if carrots were primarily purple or white at the time... unless people find grey an appealing color for butter.

By: XiBe

XiBe — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 05:03:43 -0800

By: stonerose

stonerose — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 05:08:23 -0800

Arrr, they make me one unpatched eye see better, but they leave me all a-scurvy. Yarrr. That be a treacherous orange root.

By: nthdegx

nthdegx — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 05:12:02 -0800

Any pirate worth their salt has a talking carrot on their shoulder, but I thought they were multi-coloured. No, wait...

By: briank

briank — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 07:16:35 -0800

That Times Online link requires a registration and paid subscription to view.

By: Busithoth

Busithoth — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 07:31:00 -0800

I like how a 'mutant strain' introduced manually back then can take over the whole market. I'm still waiting for the purple 'organic' carrots to show up in my local store...

By: ewagoner

ewagoner — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 07:52:19 -0800

Everything you want to know about the carrot can be found at the World Carrot Museum. At my farm, I grow white, purple, red, yellow, and even a few orange carrots.

By: twine42

twine42 — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 08:39:56 -0800

And for all this time I thought I was being strange refering to Sainsbury's Blue Carrot Parade, when I was really appearing to be highly inteligent. Or something.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 08:51:00 -0800

ewagoner, I'd love to hear more about how you set up your farm, and the good, bad, and ugly of the economics and logistics of doing it. My dream, or one of them at least, you'd be living.

By: mcwetboy

mcwetboy — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 08:57:00 -0800

I get purple organic carrots all the time from my friendly neighbourhood organic growers. Um . . . arr.

By: majcher

majcher — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 09:21:26 -0800

So, if you really want to have fun, next time ye go to the local organic hippie store, and you see orange carrots there, insist that the manager come over and explain to you why these genetically engineered monstrosities are allowed near the other pristine organic produce. Arrrr, I've me a mind to go to that right now.

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 09:26:54 -0800

Well, first, the carrots in that ananova picture hardly look purple. If they're hoping that color will make kids want to eat them... whatever. But does anyone know if the non-orange carrots have significantly less beta-carotene? Common sense would say yes... but then, common sense would also say "carrots have always been orange," so... just wondering.

By: tabbycat

tabbycat — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 09:45:57 -0800

Russell Crowe buys the veggies for Sainsbury's?! When does the poor guy find time to make films?

By: stonerose

stonerose — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 09:49:09 -0800

soyjoy: "The original goal was to breed a maroon carrot that would be a novelty in the home garden of Aggies," Pike said. Texas A&M's school colors are maroon and white. "But the goal changed as we began breeding for high beta carotene and anthocyanins which have cancer preventive properties and are found in BetaSweet carrots. ... BetaSweet carrots are maroon on the outside but orange on the inside."

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 10:19:07 -0800

Maroon, sure. Purple, no way. Thanks, stonerose.

By: i_cola

i_cola — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 14:53:29 -0800

Fuck Sainsburys. Oooo, we're re-introducing old varieties & doing good things. Apart from totally shafting UK farming & screwing every small grocer out of business. Grrrr. Arrr. A-harrr.