Orange Carrots Vs White Carrots

Posted on 15. Nov, 2010 by Tracey in Veg Plot

My white carrots are far from being harvested (sowed on 30th July) but I can’t help pulling one up now and again to check on their progress, I’m not sure what I was expecting that they were suddenly going to change to orange or something! But whenever there’s a novelty vegetable, we as human’s and veg growers cannot help ourselves but to try and grow it.

For some reason I’m holding back a bit on attempting to grow the purple carrot, maybe its the news reports that the colour seeps into the water when boiling them and the yellow carrot just looks too weird. And black carrots, seriously?! they don’t even look edible, unless the charred look is back in fashion.

Coloured Carrots

For the past few years, my carrot harvests have been plentiful and its definitely down to the fertile compost in my raised beds because I wouldn’t have even attempted to grow them in our garden soil which is mostly made up of clay and stones. So this winter I have opted to grow only White Carrots which is a risk I know as I don’t even know what they taste like.

Variety I’m growing is: White Kuttiger from The Organic Gardening Catalogue (UK) or Whatcom Seed Company (USA).

Coloured Carrots Picture Source: My Balcony Jungle

Reasons to Grow White Carrots

They are an alternative from the original orange colour,
Carrots were originally white (and purple) and from Afghanistan before they cross bred to get the orange colour,
They have phytochemicals which occur naturally in the plant to help with nutrients in our body,
White carrots are said to be sweeter and juicer than orange carrots,
White carrots cannot be called ‘novelty’ as they look similar to parsnips.
They are good sources of dietary fibre and good for carotene allergy sufferers.

Reasons to Grow Orange Carrots

One thing White Carrots lack is beta carotene, which makes the orange color and is essential for healthy eyes and skin,
You can go on using the old wives tale – you must eat all your carrots so you can see in the dark but you can’t with white carrots as they don’t contain beta carotene.
According to the Carrot Museum, white carrots are the least healthy of all the coloured carrots, purple or orange are the healthiest.
Orange Carrots are the most popular coloured carrot and have a huge number of varieties of all shapes and sizes.

My Verdict

I can see why white carrots wouldn’t be that exciting to some people. They have no colour pigment and especially as we are supposed to ‘eat with out eyes’ but purple, yellow, red and black carrots are just a step too far for me on the ‘what’s wrong with orange?’ scale. White is the happy medium to me and they look like parsnips in the whole colour association thing so I can except them as a credible alternative to orange carrots.

Late Summer Orange Carrots

I’m not saying I’d give up growing orange carrots, not with all their benefits. I think everyone should grow their own carrots for that moment when you pull them from the ground to reveal their carroty fresh smell, you know what I mean if you have grown your own, its well worth waiting months for.

I’m leaving my verdict open on White carrots until I taste them. I’ll be back to this very post, when my carrot harvest is ready in the new year. Until then I’ve got my orange carrots in storage.