Carrots used to be purple
The earliest cultivated carrots were purple and yellow. The orange carrot became dominant in the Netherlands, and a famous patriotic explanation for it is probably a myth.
Wild carrots have thin, pale, woody roots. People in Central Asia, probably around present-day Afghanistan and Iran, domesticated them about a thousand years ago, and the early varieties were purple and yellow.
Orange carrots, rich in beta-carotene, became widespread through cultivation in the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries. They were sweeter, kept well, and spread across Europe.
The Orange myth
A popular story says Dutch growers bred orange carrots as a patriotic tribute to William of Orange, who led the Dutch revolt. It is a lovely idea, and there is no contemporary evidence for it. Orange varieties may simply have been better suited to the climate and to people’s tastes.
The night-vision story
In the Second World War, Britain promoted carrots as helping you see in the blackout, and the press credited the night-fighter pilot John Cunningham’s success to eating carrots. Many accounts say the story helped hide the real reason: new airborne radar. How deliberate the cover story was is debated. What is certain is that vitamin A prevents night blindness in deficient people, and that eating extra carrots will not give anyone superhuman night vision.
Bring it up
“Carrots weren’t originally orange, and there’s a WWII propaganda story about carrots and night vision that hid radar.”
Follow the thread
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- Same patternThe croissant is Austrian (sort of) Food origin stories that attract appealing but unsupported legends.
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