…I made a carrot cake with these beauties, would it be purple?
Yes, these are purple carrots. Aren’t they just gorgeous? If you’d been around a few hundred (or thousand!) years ago they’d have been common. The orange colour was only introduced, from a natural mutation, by Dutch breeders/ growers relatively recently. A popular story has it that a zealous Dutchman, hoping to curry favour with the House of Orange, developed the orange carrot. The Carrot Museum (yes, there is a carrot museum!) has some interesting facts.
Purple or orange, I love carrots. *
Just when we thought we’d skipped our Big Wet…
Torrential rain made the drive to work “interesting.” Lots of drivers taking risks. Not a policeman in sight. ** And My Man couldn’t travel out West, as scheduled, because roads were closed. In some places, serious flooding. Yes, some of the places still reeling from the 2011 floods.
I have been clearing rain pits here and next door. I’ve given up on trying to clear water from the carport. The sun and the breeze can do it. I’m flat-out dealing with laundry!
Oh! As if floods were not bad enough, we have the State Election on Saturday. It rather looks as though the Labour Party will lose. In a landslide. In this weather, I’d say “mudslide” might be the word!
I have a printing day tomorrow so I’m off to sort some inks.
*If Afghanis make a powerful alcoholic brew from carrots, maybe that’s why the West is hell-bent on staying there? Carrot-based rocket fuel? Hmm…
**This afternoon, in brilliant sunshine, a few metres from the end of my street, with sod-all traffic, Mr. Plod had stopped someone.
Moreidlethoughts Weblog 
Upon first glance I thought they were beets! I sat in a restaurant with Daisyfae last night and they brought beets to the table. She turned her nose up but liked them.
To me, a printing day sound like heaven on earth.
LikeLike
Maybe one day we 3 will all be in town together. 🙂 waves to Daisyfae.
My day will be like heaven if all goes well. I can lose all track of time once I’m on a roll.
LikeLike
I vaguely remember a housekeeping book by ‘The Goodman of Paris’ – amazingly enough written by a man…a guide to housekeeping for the old goodman’s teenage bride. in the late middle ages.
He mentions carrots as being white and she is to buy bunches of them with one orange one in the bunch.
When i was first in France, packets of carrot seed showed white carrots too – supposedly for animal fodder.
LikeLike
Yes, early carrots were white. Or very “dark” like my purples. As with many other wild weeds, over the years,old recipes and remedies have made their way into “accepted truths.” More than a few belong in the realm of “fantasy!”
Nice tale about the Goodman sending his bride out for a bouquet! 🙂
LikeLike
I haven’t grown purple carrots….yet… but just give me a bit of time! I think they are fab (make sure you share a piccie of any cake you might get around to making….. oh and use the state election to full advantage – yell from the rooftops – FARMS NOT MINES!!!!! after all, purple carrots are not the product of coal seam gas mining……)
LikeLike
That’s true! But even some lefties think CSG is a good thing. 😦
LikeLike
I can’t remember what I said earlier but I’m trying again with my WordPress ID. Here goes nothing…
LikeLike
Well, welcome aboard! Of course, your link goes back to the magpies, but I’ll tell folks who you really are. bwahahaha…be very afraid!
ed’s note: 99 Magpies is Andrea, of Colouring Outside The Lines http://andreapratt.blogspot.com/
LikeLike
I would eat purple carrots. I would not eat beets. More for you, hotstuff…
LikeLike
Strange…that’s not what UB said in the first comment. Oh, he was being polite? He’s such a gentleman!
LikeLike
Did he stop Noddy or Big ears?
LikeLike
Haha! It was a fairly hefty chap, so I think it was Big Ears. (But he wasn’t wearing stripey pants and a pointy hat:-))
LikeLike
Hmm, they remind me of cut-up rhubarb (the purple carrots, that is). My grandmother grew them in her garden and would make pies out of them every summer. I never acquired a taste for the pies, much to her dismay.
LikeLike
A bit like pumpkin pie, I suppose. Usually much too sweet for me!
LikeLike
We have purple and white carrots here, at least at the less mainstream markets. I’ve had them a few times, but they never tasted that great. Perhaps it was the way they were grown. They look great though.
I do hope things are drying up a bit, and I hope the results of your mudslide election are…not quite as filthy as feared. Alas.
LikeLike
Well, after the mud-slinging it does look like a mudslide. 24 hours and we’ll know.
LikeLike
PS !@#$% WordPress sign-in. I have it set to remember me. It recognizes me and fills in my info. I hadn’t been having a problem leaving comments since I told it to remember me. This time, even though it showed my info, insisted I wasn’t actually signed in and wouldn’t let me leave my comment. And I have to remember that this WordPress sign-in is, for reasons only clear to WordPress, not the WordPress sign-in to get into my blog. Bleh. I know you’re all having the same problems. Just thought I’d take the opportunity to grumble.
LikeLike
What is wrong with these boffiins! I thought Blogger was all sorted, but I’m having difficulties there again!
Nurse Myra had a link which was helpful to soome of you…I’ll go back and find it…hang on.This is it http://diaryofdaedalus.com/2012/03/15/tech-note-wordpress-com-changes-commenting-with-gravatars/
I hope it helps.Failing that, maybe a stiff shot? 🙂
LikeLike
‘Massive overconsumption of carrots can cause carotenosis, a benign condition in which the skin turns orange.’ (Wikipedia)
You will take care, won’t you?
LikeLike
OOh yes. I’ll be very sure to take my carrots with plenty of cod liver oil!
And it’s nice to see you back. 🙂
LikeLike