Growing Carrots for a Colourful and Nutritous Crop
Growing Carrots - for taste and vitamin content
Why not try growing carrots? They are chock full of vitamins and minerals and are quite easy to grow - a good choice of organic vegetable to contribute to your green lifestyle.
Non-organic carrots often contain residues (in the flesh, where you cannot scrape them away), so of all vegetables, they are perhaps one of the most worthwhile to grow, especially if you have difficulty sourcing organic carrots to buy.
Carrots are not hard to grow. With a little care you can easily grow a satisfyingly tasty and nutritious crop. It's great to be able to eat juicy baby carrots from your own garden. They go well with fresh peas - and other organic vegetables such as new potatoes.
You dont have to stick to orange carrots. There are plenty of purple, white and pale yellow carrots to try which have slightly different tastes and characteristics. Carrot seed for these variations is now widely available, both on the net and in the larger garden outlets. Kids often find the more unusual colours such as purple intriguing - and may be more willing to try them. It's worth a shot if your child is a fussy eater - but if it does not work, you will just have to make funny coloured carrot cake!
What vitamins are found in carrots?
Carrots are full of nutrients, in particular carotene which the body uses to manufacture vitamin A. Vitamin A plays a part in the bodys immune system, helping to ward off infections and it plays an important role in protecting your eyesight, particularly night vision. Carrots health benefits have been legendary for some time.
During the Second World War the RAF started the rumour that carrots were the responsible for their visual abilities in night sorties. People were also encouraged to grow carrots to help their eyesight so that they could cope with the blackout. Dr Carrot was a cartoon character used in posters to popularise the benefits of carrots with children.
Turns out they were not far off the mark. Recent research has shown that carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin, may play a valuable role in protecting our eyes against age-related macular degeneration. Although the principal vitamin in carrots is carotene, they also contain vitamins B complex, C, D, E and K and a whole range of minerals.
Carrot seed is widely available. You can buy from Amazon. Don't forget, buy fresh carrot seed each season. Very few carrot seeds are still viable after a year of storage.
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