The political reason carrots are orange

by Sevaan Franks on August 17, 2009

Not many people know that carrots come in all manner of colours. Why is it, though, that you only ever see orange ones? [Thx Boris]

They’re orange for entirely political reasons: in the 17th century, Dutch growers cultivated orange carrots as a tribute to William of Orange – who lead the the struggle for Dutch independence – and the color stuck. A thousand years of yellow, white and purple carrot history, was wiped out in a generation.

Although some scholars doubt if orange carrots even existed prior to the 16th century, they now form the basis of most commercial cultivators around the world. Presumably crosses between Eastern (purple), Western (white, red) and perhaps wild carrots led to the formation of the orange rooted carrot sub species. Turkey is often cited as the original birthplace of the hybrids (or mutations) of the two groups.

{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }

Rowley August 17, 2009 at 12:53 pm

Led, not lead. No comma before “was wiped out”. Scholars doubt that, not if. Basis of most commercial cultivars, not cultivators. Dude, can I come work for you? This message will self-destruct, and the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. Good luck, Jim.

Sevaan Franks August 17, 2009 at 1:12 pm

I just paste the excerpts, I don’t correct them!

jessiev August 17, 2009 at 9:35 pm

what fun!

frank September 20, 2009 at 12:25 pm

@Sevaan Franks
Well thats a fantastic way to blog. Cut and paste with no sources. Isn’t it great to admit to plagiarism?

Albert Van Thournout September 20, 2009 at 1:45 pm

Interesting history indeed, but please do follow Rowley’s advice by hiring him to do your editing.

Sevaan Franks September 20, 2009 at 2:35 pm

Try clicking on the image or even on my own summary. You will see that on this article, as well as every other one, they lead directly to the source article.

Curtis September 20, 2009 at 4:54 pm

wow, why is everyone who comments being such uptight jerks?

I thought this was interesting, I’m not OCD enough for the grammatical errors to bother me and it seemed pretty clear that you were quoting this article. Maybe some of these people are not used to using the internet? Learn some modern media literacy instead of belaboring ancient rules of speech and writing, que?

Sevaan Franks September 20, 2009 at 6:25 pm

Thanks, Curtis!

Helen Curley October 7, 2009 at 3:12 pm

I think it’s great to learn something new…people shouldn’t get so uptight about grammar since this isn’t a book…it’s about attaining new knowledge and i for one am glad to hear about this site!!!

Mike April 1, 2010 at 6:46 pm

@Rowley A real live grammar natzi! U do internet much good!

Phil E. Drifter May 12, 2010 at 5:29 am

Did she died?

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