Jun
29
Baby Carrots and Homegrown Roasted Veggies
June 29, 2008 |

Baby carrots: Red, Yellow, Orange and White
When I first came to the U.S. all ready to be inducted into the Hall of Suckerdom, I thought the NBA World Series actually had teams participating from around the world. And that baby carrots were just that - fledgling carrots on their way to becoming adults.
Now I know better. When teams from the U.S play against each other, it’s the ‘World’ series, ‘cos … we say so. Just deal with it.
And ‘baby carrots’ in the supermarket are actually ‘baby-cut carrots‘ - adult carrots chopped into smaller pieces. This was the brainwave of California farmer Mike Yurosek.
Yurosek was unhappy at having to discard as much as 400 tons of carrots a day because of slight rotting or imperfections, and looked for a way to reclaim what would otherwise be a waste product. He was able to acquire an industrial green bean cutter, which cut his carrots into two lengths, and by placing these lengths into an industrial potato peeler, he created the original baby carrot, branded “Bunny-Luv.” In 2006, nearly three-quarters of the fresh baby carrots produced in the United States came from Bakersfield, California.
(Wiki)

Baby-cut Carrots. Wikimedia Commons
Chop up carrots that were originally thrown away, mark them up, and laugh all the way to the bank. Now, if I see ‘baby’ anything in the supermarket, I move on.
Real baby carrots will have an ‘eye’ at the top of each carrot and usually come with the greens attached. The impostors look like little logs, even all over. Flavour-wise, there’s no comparison.
A month or two ago we scattered a whole lot of seeds in our garden patch - too many in fact. Now, we have a tangled mass of stems. We thinned out the patch today and got a bunch of baby carrots, parsnips and beets.

Organic homegrown baby carrots
Carrots and beets are a great return on investment ‘cos the greens are edible too. Parsnip greens are not, but we absolutely love the roots.
Our lunch today was homegrown.

Multi-coloured baby carrots roasted with baby beets, baby parsnips, sweet potato, crookneck squash, purple spring onions, and garnished with carrot greens and onion greens. We roasted them with some olive oil and salt. That’s it.
Everything except the sweet potato came from our garden.
Homegrown Roasted Veggies go to Pam @ Sidewalk Shoes for Weekend Herb Blogging.
-b.
baby carrot, baby-cut carrot, beetroot/beet, Carrot, carrot greens, crookneck-squash, GARDENING, Parsnip, Pumpkin/Squash, Sweet Potato, Veg Medley, vegan recipes, vegetarian recipes





















I have never seen multi-colored carrots, That is wonderful crop!
What a wonderfully colorful dish, I love roasted veggies … I had to LOL at the “baby” carrots sold in cellophane packages in the grocer, yucky !!
eeks, I did not know about the “baby” carrots!
and WOW at the crop of veggies you got. Great job you guys…
wonderful to see multicolour carrots and of course the roasted platter looks awesome.I have never tried baby beets, must be tating heavenly.
Platter looks delicious and healthy.I too didn’t know about baby carrots and about “world series” , H spend about 1 hour explaining during last season..:D
Oh, goodness, that looks fantastic. I’m a carrot fan but not when it’s all woody and tough and humongous. Problem is, only a few enterprising farmers here know there’s a market for baby carrots!
Ack! I just threw away carrot greens after staring at them for the longest time. What do you do with them?
they taste like mild parsley (same family). you can make pesto, chutney, dal, couscous with it.
Bee. i have been thinking the same about baby carrots until this post. I am glad that every time I visit your blog, there is a new post.. No more disappointments where Im staring into an older post every morning when I come here…. I love the combo of root veggies… maybe I’d try a zunka and see how it turns out…
Delightful summer dish. Sometimes I think everything tastes better roasted, but my pick of that lot would be the baby beets..Yumm.
I knew about the baby cut carrots in one of Rachel Ray’s 30 minute meals show. See, she is not all ranting! She enlightened me on this one!
You could have also thrown in a halved bulb of garlic. Vegetables are always inspiring.
Wow I’m surprised I didn’t know about the baby cut carrots…Hmmm!!! And I paid more for it!!!
Thanks for that piece of info….haven’t ever seen baby carrots, but babycorn is all over here - hope they are not the same story…
Loce roasted veggies - i put a few cloves of garlic and some fresh mint or coriander - gives the most amazing taste ever!
Love the multicoloured dish
Miri
wow, that looks colorful, which generally also means healthy:) I envy you your garden folks! nice work guys….perhaps you could send this to my Healthy cooking event!:)
OMG! I’ve been buying baby carrots and wondering why they looked like logs of wood!! I think I should google before buying anything!!
I hvnt seen multicoloured carrots and that plate looks yum.. and how nice to have organic food
That is a wonderful bounty. Pretty pictures and I bet that tasted amazing!
We get small carrots here that are shaped like carrots, you know, tapered, straggly end and all - not sure what they are, technically.
LOL! Those store bought “baby” carrots are “big” carrots cut to look like babies indeed! We know it but still buy it anyway!:D
Great job with real colorful babies. I didn’t plant Carrots but got some Radishes.
What a lovely salad…I will have to get Dan to get the different color carrots for next years garden.
How adorable are those baby carrots !
Roasted vegetables look vibrant and delicious!
nice home-grown roasted veggies - nutritious and tasty looking!
Wow! Growing plants is a very gratifying experience. And that too vegetables where you can consume the entire plant is good. My first harvests this season were oriental radish (I know you dont like them), methi and tomatoes(early bush boy). I am waiting for the heirloom vegetables now they seem to take their time.
What else are you growing this season? Waiting to see more pictures. Thanks.
What a pretty platter! My dinner y’day was something similar: carrots, radishes, beets and tomatoes, diced, and enjoyed with sour yogurt, black pepper and salt
You must have felt so thrilled with these pretty vegetables from your garden!
Nice and healthy:)
Wow hat a great crop you guys have!!!
wonderful crop .. first time i have seen yellow carrots/..
Lovely medley!
Simple dishes really are the best. I can’t get over the colors of those veggies, so beautiful! I would so love to have a vegetable garden… Ah, someday.
Oh, and I gave you an award; please check it out here…
I have some of those rainbow carrots growing too, but mine are still very small. (Maybe I’m too shy about thinning them!) Looks like a delicious lunch.
It is really nice to see those rianbow colour baby carrot.
Must say GREAT JOB.
Looks great.
I actually wanted to grow my own crop. Could you tell me the best way to do it? Thanks.
–Chris
we just spread the seeds in april with 1/4 inch soil on top. if you live in warmer climates, you can do it earlier - like in february. you need to thin them out after a while. we didn’t bother to. - b.
Do you know where I can get baby carrots with the greens still attached? I need them for this Saturday, Oct 17th, for a baby shower. Thanks