[Image: several differently colored carrots, ranging from pale white to dark purple.]
Why are carrots orange? It is political
No, the image above does not some show some collection of freshly genetically designed hypercarrots in various colors of the rainbow. This is the spectrum of colors carrots used to have – and in some regions of the world you can still find white, yellow, red and purple carrots. In most countries however, carrots tend to be orange nowadays. Why is that?
They’re orange for entirely political reasons: in the 17th century, Dutch growers cultivated orange carrots as a tribute to William of Orange – who led the the struggle for Dutch independence – and the color stuck. A thousand years of yellow, white and purple carrot history, was wiped out in a generation.
Although some scholars doubt if orange carrots even existed prior to the 16th century, they now form the basis of most commercial cultivators around the world. Presumably crosses between Eastern (purple), Western (white, red) and perhaps wild carrots led to the formation of the orange rooted carrot sub species. Turkey is often cited as the original birthplace of the hybrids (or mutations) of the two groups.
Whatever the origins, the Long Orange Dutch carrot, first described in writing in 1721, is the forebear of the orange Horn carrot varieties so abundant nowadays. The Horn Carrot derives from the Netherlands town of Hoorn in the neighborhood of which it was presumably bred. All our modern, western carrots ultimately descend from these varieties. Hypernature avant la lettre.
file under: things i didn’t give a shit about until just now.
Huh! This explains why I saw a “purple carrot” snack at an Asian store once. I thought it had to be a mis-translation for taro, or maybe purple yams.  The idea of purple carrots really intrigued me… AND IT TURNS OUT THEY’RE REAL. O_O
My roommates grew carrots in their garden this summer, and the carrot crop was about half orange, half purple. Though others may insist they taste the same, I am convinced that the purple ones taste… purplier.
The cross-section of the purple carrots I ate revealed that the color was only in the outer layers of the root flesh. The inside/core was orange as well. :D
