I like produce. I like to grow it. I like to eat it. I like to create recipes with it. I’m also kind of a nerd and like to get to know my produce. I like learning new or fun tidbits of info about the produce I’m growing/eating/baking. If you’re a weirdo like me then buckle up for this new series as I dive into a plethora of produce facts and share them with you.
1. The first carrots grown were not orange. People started growing carrots 5,000 years ago but they were all were white, black, purple, red or yellow not orange. The iconic orange carrots were created by selective breeding in Netherlands as a tribute to the ruling House of Orange.
2. One square meter of U.S. carrot production is adequate to fulfill the vitamin A needs for one adult for one ENTIRE year. Vitamin A is known for improving one’s eyesight and preventing night blindness when aging, so those rumors of carrots helping your vision are actually factual!
3. Move over watermelon…carrots are 87% water!
4. The only vegetable with more sugar than a carrot is a beet. And that carrot cake thing suddenly makes perfect sense!
5. Carrot leaves were once used as a fashion statement and carried in the hair in 17th century England. And since fashion trend seem to repeat themselves, look for this one on the runways soon!
6. Approximately, 35.6 million tons of carrots are produced annually.
How to Keep Carrots Fresh All Winter
7. Carrots are super healthy for you! They help with constipation {TMI??} and the beta-carotene in carrots helps reduce the risk of lung cancer. Carrots also contain carotenoids which help decrease insulin resistance and help decrease blood sugar levels in a gradual manner. Plus, the coumarin in carrots has been found to reduce high blood pressure and can also reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack. Bugs Bunny was onto something!
8. Speaking of bugs bunny, wild rabbits actually don’t eat carrots. Who knew?!
9. The average person will consume 10,866 carrots in his lifetime. {{WOW}}
10. Carrots can actually change the color of your skin! If you eat too many carrots you might get cartonemia which gives your skin a yellowish tint.
Had you heard any of those fun facts before? Do you have any of your own to add? Is there a particular produce item you want to know more about? I take requests!
Grow on,
Mavis
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Crystal says
The Royal Air Force (in England) used the “carrots help you see better in the dark” ad campaign to try to hide their new invention of air borne radar from the Germans in World War II. Vitamin A can help your vision if you are deficient in it, but mostly, this entire thing is us still believing a very effective bit of WWII propaganda.
Brianna says
My French teacher always had a 1 lb bag of baby carrots sitting on her desk and she would munch on them throughout the day. Everyday she had a new bag. It wasn’t until Biology class that I learned her artificial glowing tan was probably from the carrots. I spent 3 years in her class and her carrots were there every single day like a cup of coffee for some. I saw her a few years ago and I almost didn’t recognize her because she looked so pale. It has been nearly 20 years since I was in her class and she didn’t seem to age at all, just her skin changed color. I assume she gave up the carrot habit.
Emily says
Thank you! Carrots are l e of my favorite vegetables to grow. I love the element of surprise. You don’t know what they will look like until you pull them out of the ground.
leslie says
A friend of mine, her parents were WAY into the health movement during the 60’s and 70’s. They have a family picture when my friend was young and the whole family looks orange (this picture should be in one of those awkward family books). The reason they looked orange is because they drank copious amounts of juiced carrots!!
Mavis Butterfield says
That is funny! I always wondered just how many carrots you would have to consume to turn orange.
Katie says
Lots of fun facts! Now if only I could stand the taste and smell of carrots…
Tammy says
A carrot a day keeps PMS away! It can’t be juiced–it has something to do with the fibers in the whole state of the carrot.
Ellen Smith says
Here’s my carrot story…when my son was a baby he was very sick with meningitis and was hospitalized. The first night I went into his room and they had this special light on him. When I asked what it was for they told me they used it to combat jaundice–he had kind of a yellowish tinge to his skin. Turns out it wasnt his liver malfunctioning…it was all the carrot based baby food I had been feeding him! Once he had been off that food for a couple of days he lost that weird color. After he came home I was more aware of how many of those carrrot meals I was giving him!
Vicki says
I have probably eaten fewer than a dozen carrots in my entire life. Just not a fan …
Candice says
How I keep carrots all winter. I can them the same days I harvest them. There are other things to eat fresh from garden at that time so all the carrots (majority) goes into jars. Know what kind of soil they grew in (Back to Eden organic) and what was sprayed on them..nothing. Opened a jar tonight to serve with dinner. Yum. A little butter and a sprinkle of pepper.
Carla Edwards says
Lots of carrots and good night vision, not a realistic story. As with everything enough is good; too much doesn’t help more. Read–https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-carrots-improve-your-vision/
Good myth propagated by the British during WWII. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/a-wwii-propaganda-campaign-popularized-the-myth-that-carrots-help-you-see-in-the-dark-28812484/