We cultivate almost 2000 different plants on this planet, but my favourite is the carrot. For me, the carrot is the QUEEN of Vegetables and I eat them like candy.
- Crunchy and tasty
- Cheap
- Available everywhere
You can enjoy carrots mashed, grated, boiled, steamed or the way I like them best – RAW. They are high in beta-carotene that converts to Vitamin A in the body which is good for our vision, teeth and skin.
Here’s 10 things about carrots you may not know
- Carrots are 88% water
- In Portugal, Carrots are used to make Jam
- The World’s Largest Grower of Carrots is China who grows 45% of the World Supply – [but remember that in Canada we can easily procure our carrots locally]
- The Orange Carrot we love today, was developed in 17th century Holland in honour of the Dutch Royal Family – the House of Orange
- Eating massive amounts of carrots will turn the soles of your feet and palms yellowish orange but this will go away if you stop eating them
- Carrots are 7% natural sugars
- The carrot is one of the top 10 most economically important global vegetable crops
- Ancient Greeks and Romans ate Carrots, [but not orange ones which were bred by the Dutch] Red, purple and white carrots were harvested in the wild.
- The green tops of the carrot are edible but not many people eat them
- The urban legend that ‘eating large quantities of carrots helps us to see in the dark’ was developed from stories started in World War II. British gunners were shooting down German planes at night and to cover up the fact that it was the effective use of radar technologies that was achieving this, the RAF circulated a story about their pilots’ high level of carrot consumption.
Hungry for Carrots??
*Thanks to www.sciencekids.co.nz for the cool facts.
