What day is it?

April 4 is a very tasty and useful holiday for all connoisseurs of fresh vegetables, which is called World carrot day. Drink carrot juice, taste carrot cake or simply crunch a juicy root vegetable – on this day you can make any carrot dishes, because this vegetable is not only extremely tasty, it is a source of a large number of vitamins and trace elements.

How did the idea of ​​celebrating World Carrot Day come about?

If you haven’t heard of World carrot day, then this is not at all surprising, because the holiday is relatively new and was introduced in 2003. On this day, in major cities of the world, coffee shops add fresh carrots, mashed potatoes, salads, pies, etc. to their menu. We are so used to carrots in one or another quantity being found in many of our dishes that it is hard for us to even imagine how people prepared dishes without them.

The oldest vegetable culture

Cultivated varieties of this orange root crop are descendants of a wild plant that grew in Eastern Asia. Cultivation carrots as a vegetable crop began back in the 2000s BC. Representatives of ancient civilizations prepared dishes from it. And the excavations carried out on the territory of the former ancient Roman cities of Pompeii and Stabia, which were wiped off the face of the Earth by the devastating volcano Vesuvius in 79, showed that the inhabitants of that time really liked this vegetable and added it to various dishes. Bunches of carrots decorated the walls of houses, and the remains of the petrified orange root crop were found much more often than traces of other vegetables. And this is not surprising, because carrots are considered the oldest vegetable crop and are more than 7,000 years old.

Carrots in medieval Europe

The first written mention of this vegetable can be found in the documents of the king of the Franks – Charles I the Great, which belong to the 9th century. However, carrots received general recognition as a vegetable for cooking in Europe only in the 15th century. And later, the culture spread to other continents and territories – in America, New Zealand, Australia, etc.

The recipe books of French cooks of the 16th and 17th centuries turned out to be interesting for researchers. It turns out that even then people prepared many interesting dishes from carrots. Gourmets especially adored sauces to which stewed carrots and onions were added. However, not only the lower part of the vegetable was widely used. Young carrot greens were often added to the first dishes.

Legends and customs are associated with juicy carrots

The orange root fruit is often mentioned in the tales of the medieval inhabitants of Germany. They believed that forest gnomes liked to eat carrots. From generation to generation there was a belief that a plate of boiled carrots, brought to the forest at night, could turn into a gold bar. Good gnomes will eat the food and pay handsomely for it. It is interesting that there were many strange people who believed in this superstition and carried bowls with carrot dishes to the forest. However, they were quickly disappointed, because no one managed to take the gold back.

The attitude towards carrots in the history of our country

On the territory of Ukrainian lands, carrots, as a cultural plant, have been grown since time immemorial. In Ancient Russia, it was an obligatory gift brought to the dead. And among one of the Eastern Slavic tribes – the Krivichi, not a single burial ceremony was complete without carrots. The deceased was placed in the boat, and a large carrot was always lying next to him. After the ceremony, carrots were burned with the deceased. It was believed that if a carrot is burned together with the dead person, he will not suffer from hunger in the afterlife.

Gardens where this crop was grown in large quantities were found in Ukrainian villages and even in cities.

“Carrot” facts that few people know about

• The first ancestors carrots differed from the modern root crop in their color. The thing is that they were purple because they contained special blue pigments. The first vegetables had a hard texture and a bitter aftertaste, only after several thousand years of cultivation it was possible to get a moderately hard, juicy and tasty vegetable of the orange color we are used to. By the way, purple roots are still used in cooking to this day.
• The first are white and yellow carrots appeared in the 15th century. Breeders of that time succeeded in extracting the blue pigments of anthocyanins from the culture. And later, in the Netherlands, by crossing yellow and red varieties of carrots, an orange vegetable appeared.
• With its rich orange color carrot due to the high concentration of beta-carotene, a pigment substance that is converted into vitamin A in the human body and has strong antioxidant properties.
• With excessive use carrots human skin acquires a yellow-orange hue.
• Despite the fact that vegetables are mostly nutritious in their raw form, the opposite is true with carrots. Boiled it will bring more benefits to the body than raw. Because of too hard and hard cell walls in raw form, carrots are much more difficult to digest, the body absorbs only 4% of the beta-carotene present in it. And in its prepared form, beta-carotene is already absorbed by 30-40%.
• Carrots contain almost 90% water and almost no starch, so they are great for diet food. In addition to such valuable beta-carotene for the human body, this vegetable contains many valuable vitamins and microelements – potassium, calcium, manganese, vitamins of group C and B.
• In addition to high nutritional values carrots has excellent anti-inflammatory, antiseptic and anastatic properties. Because of this, it is widely used in cosmetology and medicine.
• Mostly in European countries carrots are not classified as vegetables, but as fruits. For example, in Portugal, delicious marmalade is made from this root crop.

How to celebrate World Carrot Day?

On this day, everyone can arrange for themselves not only a delicious, but also the most useful holiday. There are several tips that will make this day unforgettable for you and your loved ones:

1. Prepare a delicious fresh carrot or other carrot dish.
2. Share the recipe on your social media page.
3. Arrange a “carrot party” for your family or friends.
4. Learn more about the beneficial and nutritional properties of this vegetable.

When will we celebrate World carrot day?

On a specific date