Carrots

That's a urban legend, of course! Carrot is a delicious root crunchy snack vegetable usually orange in colour thanks to β-carotene, but many other colors exist: white, purple, red, yellow, even black. It's a vegetable available throughout the year which belongs to the Umbelliferae/Apiaceae family, with their famous umbrella-like flowers.

Even if about half of the world production grows in China, the carrot as we know it was originated in Afghanistan about 1100 years ago, eventually introduced to Europe by the Moors in the 700 A.D. Some seeds was discovered in Germany and Switzerland, dating back to 2000 B.C (or even 3000 B.C.). The carrot made its appearance in the U.S. in the 17^th century.

Carrot's chemical composition

Falcarindiol is the main compound responsible for the bitterness in carrots; in addition they are full of zinc, sodium, potassium, phosphorus, manganese, magnesium, iron, calcium, vitamins A/C/E and folate. Another important compound in carrots is eugenin. Carrots include also several types of sugars, such as glucose, sucrose, fructose and xylose, while glutamic acid gives most of the famous taste of the vegetable carrot.

Carrots in your kitchen

Carrots can be cooked by adding cooking oil, chopped or boiled, fried or steamed or cooked in soups and stews, as well as baby and pet foods as broths or pureed: a carrots julienne is a world-wide known dish. Baby carrots (also known as mini carrots) have become in the eighties a popular snack food, ready and fast to eat available in many supermarkets.

Unfortunately, carrots can meet with some diseases, that can reduce their market appeal: the most devastating one is called alternaria which eradicate entire crops. But there are also benefits linked to carrots such as:

• reducing women glaucoma;
• being a perfect anticancer in the risk of colon cancer.

The trick to preserve the carrots and their freshness is to minimize the moisture they lose storing them in the coolest part of the refrigerator in a plastic bag or wrapped in a paper towel. Then, before eating, scrub each carrot a brush for vegetables.

Holtville, the city of carrots

There is a city in California named Holtville which promotes itself as “carrot capital of the world” and every year holds a festival for this orange vegetable, in order to bring together everyone and anyone interested in carrots such as packers, growers, seed producers, shippers, sellers, breeders, marketers and so on. In 2013 the 36^th International Carrots Conference has been set up at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center in Madison, Wisconsin, Usa from the 15^th to the 16^th August.