In the Market: Purple Carrots

Until recently, Gothamist had never seen purple carrots before, but apparently they have been around since the beginning of time. According to nutritionists, their purple pigments are high in anti-oxidants. Gothamist's lack of exposure to such interesting veggie varieties makes us long for the farmer's markets on the West Coast, where they have stands with a rainbow of carrot varieties.

Gothamist is going to make these purple carrots tonight - has anyone else tasted them or other colors? Is there a major taste difference or is just about appearances?

Purple carrots can currently be found at the Upper West Side Fairway for about $3-4 a bunch.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Joe DeSalazar in Food on May 10, 2005 12:39 PM

Comments [rss]

Stephen

I believe that the maroon or purple color is a natural genetic variation of the naturally orange carrot. A few years back, Dr.Pike at Texas A&M noticed the variation, and decided to develop a full purple version of the carrot. Here are some links:

An article on the research

The original research listing

Another small article

Coifmo

The history of these, apparently, is that they were developed at Texas A&M (school color: maroon)as an alternative to having to eat a vegetable symbolizing arch-nemisis and former conference rivals University of Texas (color: burnt orange).

Lindsay

Just returned from India where all carrots are RED, not orange, and not purple. They taste milder than orange carrots, but they are better because they produce is fresher there. ...by the way, oranges are green there.

mac

I grew them last year in my garden. They taste exactly like any other carrot to me.

CU

I've purchsed purple carrots from the Union Square farmers market before and they're pretty good (and much cheaper than Fairway's). They have a more earthy taste than orange carrots.

pantrygirl

Hmmm.. Sounds like someone is a Good Eats fan. :-D

Did you call for a nutritional anthropologist? :-D

ganda

Paffenroth Gardens (red and yellow tents) is the Union Square Greenmarket stand that sells different colored carrots. They won't be ready for a while, but when they are, come early for them as they tend to sell quickly. He has purple, orange, yellow, red, thumbelina (round), and occasionally Belgian white carrots; often he has baby size carrots in all colors too, it just depends on what stage of planting they're in. (I used to work for the Paffenroths.)

MRKisThatKid

Carrots were purple originally, until the Dutch decided to mess up the carrot's genes and make them orange (their national colour no less). The different colour caught on quickly and the world has enjoyed orange carrots ever since.

evamn

ohhh

I almost thought it was some inappropriate image appearing on my desktop at first.

joe

Don't peel the purple carrots! The purple was only skin deep on the ones I bought last summer. Peeling one turned it into a regular orange carrot.

Jen

Beautiful pictures, Joe S...and thanks to Joe D. for inspiring me to make purple carrots for the health benefits - I was just going to do it for the pretty colors.

joe

One of the farmers at the Union Square Greenmarket will have purple carrots, as well as yellow, orange, and stubby carrots, later this summer. Here's a photo picture from last year when they were $1.50 a bunch. I don't recall the farm's name but they're on the west side of the market next to the smoked trout guy on Saturdays.