Tips and Tricks #13: Recognize, cook and cultivate every carrot variety

Three curiosities about carrots

Before looking at different carrot types, let's see some curoisities about these vegetables:

• When buying a bunch of fresh carrots, it is important to remember always to cut the green part; otherwise it will suck away the vitamins of the root
• Usually the carrot is picked when its diameter is between one and two centimeters. If you leave them too much time in the ground, the central part becomes harder, woody and definitely unpleasant to eat.
• Carrots comes probably from Egypt and were originally purple in color. Orange was obtained in Holland thanks to some grafts created by local inhabitants to pay homage to the Orange family.

Carrots varieties: how to recognize and cook them

Orange carrots

They are the classic, most used and versatile carrots. They are rich in vitamin A and help mind and body. You can taste them raw, cut into julienne or steamed with oil and vinegar.

Red carrots

They are rich in lycopene, an element that helps to counteract the free radicals that cause skin aging. In addition, this type of carrot increases defenses against heart disease and is a good choice to prevent some types of cancer, such as prostate cancer. They are perfect in salad with beetroot.

Yellow carrots

Also called Polignano carrots, because the cultivation is carried out in a rather restricted area, near Polignano a Mare, in the province of Bari (Italy). This carrot has obtained the recognition of Slow Food as an example of a new model of agriculture, based on quality, on the recovery of knowledge and traditional production techniques. It contains a percentage of glucose and sucrose significantly lower than the common carrot, and is therefore perfect for those who must follow hypoglycemic diets. They are excellent steamed.

Black carrots

They are rich in anthocyanins, antioxidants that counteract the attack on cells by free radicals. Consumption of black carrots is also useful for keeping low levels of bad cholesterol in the blood. They are suitable to be steamed together with potatoes.

White carrots

Excellent antitumor, the consumption of this carrots type is useful to counteract the accumulation of fat within the arteries. They are very good raw and also baked with potatoes or in soups together with some coriander.

Purple carrots

They are able to slow blood clotting and possess anti-inflammatory properties. Try them for making desserts, since they are really sweet.

Tricks for carrots cultivation

Now that we have seen how many varieties of carrots exist, maybe you are willing to try to grow them in the family garden. It will be useful to know that these vegetables have a cultivation cycle of 75-120 days depending on the variety, so the harvest takes about two months from sowing. This means that, by staggering them, you can have seasonal carrots almost the whole year.

The seedlings will be thinned out as much as possible and, from the moment when the carrots start to grow, it may be useful to perform a hoeing or reinforcement of the soil, especially if the roots begin to emerge, to prevent the light from making the top of the carrot become green. In fact, the green part is not good for eating. If this happens, know that you do not need to throw away all the carrots collected, but it will be enough to eliminate the damaged one. As an alternative to hoeing or topping up the soil, mulching can be carried out, especially if your garden is subject to strong winds, which could cause the ground to dry out.

These vegetables do not need constant humidity and just irrigate when the soil becomes dry. Watering must never create stagnation that could cause diseases to the plant.

In addition, carrots love to have "neighbors". Placing them in a ground near onions, both plants benefit each other. In fact one takes away the parasites of the other: the carrot drives off the onion fly and vice versa the latter repels the carrot fly. You can also substitute the onion with leek, garlic, shallot or radish.

Finally, it is not advisable to repeat the carrot cultivation for several years in a row, but it is useful to alternate with plants such as tomatoes, potatoes or legumes, such as peas, while the succession with cabbage and asparagus must be avoided.

The carrot harvest is done by removing the root. The previous days, it is advisable to soften the soil by watering it abundantly. To preserve the collected carrots, it is necessary to dry them in a ventilated, cool and slightly humid environment.

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