The Eyes Have It

The carrots from Mom's Organic Market were as delicious as they were beautiful! The colors are not an exaggeration - they were really that varied. 

Carrots were originally purple, except for a rare occurrence of white or yellow, until the 16th century when Dutch growers developed an new variety. Over time, they combined mutant strains and eventually came up with a version similar to the orange carrot we know today.Their carrot has been associated with the House of Orange and the Dutch struggle for Independence. 

Recently a purple skinned, orange fleshed carrot, the Beta Sweet, has been developed at the Vegetable Improvement Center at Texas A & M, boasting very high concentrations of beta carotene and is credited with curing cancer.


As a child I was told to eat carrots to improve my vision by recently have read that carrots impacting eye sight is an urban legend. I'm not convinced. If my vision seems less acute, I reach for carrots and can see improvement within a day or two. 


Romans used carrots as an aphrodisiac, associating them with both lust and fertility. They have even been credited with helping women become pregnant. It's been decades since I've been pregnant so I'm skeptical. 

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