Not Bugs Bunny’s carrot – Audio
Not Bugs Bunny’s carrot anymore
Philipp Simon, Professor
Department of Horticulture
UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
(608) 262-1248, (608) 262-1490
psimon@facstaff.wisc.edu
3:04 – Total Time
0:18 – Carrots of many colors
0:46 – Farm markets, juice for color carrots
1:18 – Carrots come in many shapes
1:48 – Flavor and appearance
2:10 – More nutrition
2:37 – Even better carrots ahead
2:57 – Lead out
Sevie Kenyon: It’s not Bugs Bunny’s carrot anymore, we’re visiting today with Phil Simon, Department of Horticulture, University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, and I’m Sevie Kenyon.
Sevie Kenyon: Phil, carrots, they come in many colors many shapes, can you tell us what’s new in the market.
Phil Simon: What’s viewed as new in the market is actually what’s old for carrots. The newer carrots are carrots that might be purple in color and yellow in color or red instead of orange. It’s not really new because the first carrots of a thousand years ago were not orange, but rather purple and yellow. And so we are really going back and rediscovering our roots, if you pardon the pun.
Sevie Kenyon: Phil, where are people likely to find these things in the market?
Phil Simon: I would point to two sources. One that’s very handy here in Wisconsin is say your small growers that will show up at farm markets. We have a very good collection of growers, and these CSA growers, small-scale growers, in my experience have been very interested in trying novel varieties of carrots. You will see some use of some unusual colored carrots in some juice products available in large-scale grocery stores.
Sevie Kenyon: Talk to me a little bit about shapes of carrots.
Phil Simon: Carrots do in fact come in many different shapes and sizes. And there are carrots that are roughly the size and shape of a Ping-Pong ball. There are longer and skinnier carrots than the ones you see and carrots that are used canning and freezing are sometimes as big as your forearm, in fact carrot varieties since roughly the 1500s have been categorized by the shapes of those roots that we eat.
Sevie Kenyon: What are the important characteristics for a carrot to be popular and accepted by people?
Phil Simon: From a consumer standpoint, those that evaluate consumer preferences, have found out that flavor is a paramount factor in terms of repeat sales. Fist factor for the initial sales is appearance, but once you make that initial sale, the factor that drives people back for a repeat sale is flavor more than anything.
Sevie Kenyon: What’s the nutritional status of carrots?
Phil Simon: Nutritional status of carrots is very good, in fact the average carrot you get in your grocery store today is roughly 50 percent more nutritious than the carrot of 1970. And what that means is that they’re darker orange, because the primary nutrition out of a carrot are those orange pigments, which are, when we eat carrots turn into Vitamin A.
Sevie Kenyon: Phil look into your crystal ball a little bit, where do you see carrots going in the next 20 years?
Phil Simon: We’ll continue to have a more focus and a better focus on flavor; I think there will be new shapes of baby carrots come out. There will be some novel shapes that you’re going to find. I think that flavor will improve. I think the nutritional value will probably improve as well.
Sevie Kenyon: We’ve been visiting with Phil Simon Department of Horticulture University of Wisconsin Madison, in the College of Agricultural and Life Science, and I’m Sevie Kenyon.