CARROTS

If Mastermind was still on the telly, carrots could be my specialist subject. Their history is fascinating.

Native to Iran, ancient herbalists originally grew these humble vegetables for their aromatic seeds rather than their scrawny roots, which originally came in shades of purple, white and yellow. Legend has it that nationalist Dutch horticulturists selectively bred them orange to honour William of Orange, though the truth may simply be that apricot-coloured carrots were more aesthetically pleasing and thus more profitable.

We all know carrots are the favourite snack of a wise-cracking, wascally wabbit, but did you know that Bugs Bunny was inspired by Clark Gable's Oscar-winning carrot-peeling performance in the 1934 film, It Happened One Night? Or that Elmer Fudd's favourite crop is also to blame for many a pet bunny with an upset tummy? While cartoon cottontails happily chomp on carrots, the roots are actually too sweet for rabbits’ digestive systems.

“Let them eat carrot cake,” said Marie Antoinette. Or at least she could have, for King Louis XVI's chef Antoine Beauvilliers is credited with its invention. Fun fact: A Canadian bakery boasts the Guinness World Record for the biggest carrot cake ever baked, a 2,075kg slab with half a tonne of grated carrots in its batter.

An American grower currently holds the record for the heaviest carrot (10.17kg), while a British gardener grew the longest, measuring 6.245m. (Fancy a crack at the record? I once interviewed a competitive Welsh giant veg grower who told me the trick to producing prize-winning carrots, radishes and parsnips is to fill lengths of PVC downpipe with a mix of sand, peat and compost, sow a single seed on top, then drench weekly with liquid fertiliser.)

A decade ago, I sowed 26 varieties of carrots in a trial for NZ Gardener magazine. The pick of the crop was ‘Majestic Red’ (Yates Seeds), though the heirloom ‘Rainbow Blend’ (Kings Seeds) was the most beautiful.