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Purple Carrots
November Member
Posts: 139
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I ate some cooked purple carrots a few weeks ago that my son had grown in his garden.
To me they tasted much more of carrots than any others I have eaten .So much so I decided to concentrate on these next year.
He did not know which "make" they were . Does not keep seed packets and could not remember .
They were purple all through after cooking.( Boilied )
I have now some four different types of purple carrots seed to try myself, but wondered whether any one had a favourite and perhaps why.
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I'd also be interested to hear the results. Fresh (i.e. home-grown) carrots are so much superior to shop-bought ones that have been out of the ground for a day or two that any further improvement would be absolutely delicious!
I've grown lots of varieties including many different coloured type and totally agree with Steve - any home-grown carrot is far superior to anything bought from a shop - simple as that!
The only ones I wouldn't grow again are packets with a mix of colours as I found the various types included had rather different growth rates so were difficult to pick without disturbing the smaller ones.
Carrots have always been purple and yellow and so on. They became predominantly orange when the Dutch, who grow a n awful lot of them in their sandy soils, concentrated on that colour in honour of their Prince of Orange.
The purple, and other heritage varieties, do have more flavour than modern orange ones bred for uniformity and colour rather than flavour.
Moreveg (cheap and reliable, but small quantities) sell two purple varieties, Cosmic Purple and Purple Haze. But I agree with the others that almost any home-grown carrot will taste better than supermarket carrots.
I have tried their rainbow mixed carrots and not been impressed with the yellow or white ones, which seem to remain skinny and stringy.
Thanks to all of you guys so far.
I have seed of so far.
Purple Haze F! Purple Sun F1 , Cosmic Purple (from France) and Purple Core,
If any more can be located I might as well conduct my own trial for taste ,but it would only be my own opinion but I feel that perhaps is all that matters.
Germination etc could be of interest to others I suppose?
It's revolutionary stuff Philippa. All to do with the Dutch revolting against the Spanish and becoming independent in the late 1500s. I fond this on the web:
When a man named William the Silent from Nassau inherited the rule in Orange in 1544, he became William of Orange. He led the Dutch in Revolt against the Spanish in the late 1500s, and they eventually won their independence in the form of the Dutch Republic.
Back then the Dutch were known as carrot farmersand you could get their carrots in white or yellow or purple. Then in the 17th century a breed of carrot was developed that had a lot of beta-Carotene and was orange. And the Dutch started growing this in great abundance in tribute to William of Orange to such a degree that almost all other forms of carrot had gone out of mass agricultural production.
Seeds of Distinction have different coloured carrots
Hello everybody , I grow purple potatoes and they keep there colour when cooked , do the purple carrots keep there colour ?
Yes they stay purple, carrot cake would look good
According to the photos on the packets of some they are shown purple on the outside but orangeish inside (core).Some are shown as purple all through.
It seems a bit confusing ?
The ones I ate which were NK, as explained ,were purple all through after boiling.