And so we have once more remembered how good a simple vegetable is for us.

The bright orange fleshy root vegetable we know today as the carrot is a far cry from its wild ancestor, a small tough, pale fleshed acrid root plant.

The Carrot originated some 5000 years ago in Middle Asia around Afghanistan, and slowly spread into the Mediterranean area. The first carrots were white, purple, red, yellow, green and black - not orange. Its roots were thin and turnip coloured. Temple drawings from Egypt in 2000 B.C. show a plant which some Egyptologists believe to represent a large carrot.

Carrot seeds have been found in prehistoric Swiss lake dwellings giving clear evidence of human consumption. There is however no evidence of cultivation at this stage, more likely they were used for medicinal purposes. Similar findings appear also in ancient Glastonbury. Neolithic people savoured the roots of the wild carrot for its sweet, succulent flavour.

In Roman times carrots were purple or white. By the 10th century purple carrots were grown in Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern Iran. Purple, white and yellow carrots were imported to southern Europe in the 14th century. Black, red and green carrots were also grown. Orange roots, containing the pigment carotene, were not noted until the 16th century in Holland. This only came about thanks to patriotic Dutch growers who bred the vegetable to grow in the colours of the House of Orange.

The eighth century B.C Egyptian king Merodach-Baladan grew carrots as one of the plants his garden. He only used the scented flowers and leaves as a cooking herb.

Carrots were well known to both the Greeks and Romans.

They cultivated carrots in their kitchen gardens. These varieties are thought to have been 'forked' with white roots, not unlike the roots of today's wild carrot.

The Romans often ate carrots raw, dressed in oil, salt and vinegar or they cooked them with a sauce made from cumin, salt, old wine and oil. The Romans invading Britain in the second century AD brought leeks, onions, garden carrots, garlic, fennel, mint, thyme, parsley and coriander to name but a few. Roman soups could be quite complicated affairs. Perhaps the oldest surviving soup recipe in the world appears in Apicius' fourth century cook book, based on the notes of a cook who had died three centuries earlier. The soup in question is Pultes Iulianae, or Julian Pottage, and the recipe is as follows:

The lower class Romans (plebeians) might have a dinner of porridge made of vegetables, or, when they could afford it, fish, bread, olives, and wine, and meat on occasions. The kids are staring into a large porridge saucepan and go YUK !

By the eighth century people had been using herbs as medical tools for over four thousand years. Herbalism and medicine were essentially the same practice.

In 900 A.D. carrot consumption is traced to the hill people of Afghanistan, who were sun-worshippers and believed that eating orange or yellow coloured foods instilled a sense of righteousness.

In the 12th century Moorish invaders and then Arabian traders brought carrots to the Mediterranean and they quickly spread across Europe. An Arab writer in Spain,citing a much older work wrote of two kinds of carrot - one he called red, juicy and tasty, which was probably a purple carrot as orange varieties came later. The other one mentioned was green blending into yellow and coarser than the red.

By the 13th century carrots were being grown in fields, orchards, gardens, and vineyards in Germany and France. At that time the plant was known also in China, where it was supposed to have come from Persia. Doctors in the Middle Ages prescribed carrots as a medicine for every possible affliction, from syphilis to dog bites.

By the 14th century carrots had spread across north-western Europe. Poor country dwelling folk used the roots for soups that formed the main staple diet. In the late 1500's carrots were used as flavourings for meat dishes, rather than a main vegetable. The herbalist Gerard noted that the yellow carrot has a mild flavour.

In the 15th century these early varieties were introduced to England by Flemish refugees who grew them in quantity mainly in Kent and Surrey.

By the 16th century nearly all the botanists and writers on gardening, all over Europe, were familiar with the carrot and were describing many kinds, including red and purple kinds in France and yellow and red kinds in England. Daucus came to be the official name in the sixteenth century, and was adopted by Linnaeus in the eighteenth century. It is thought that for the first few hundred years of its managed cultivation, carrot roots were predominantly purple. The Carrot crossed the English Channel via France in the early 16th century bringing its French name carotte to England.

In 1598, Juan de Oñate, descendant of a wealthy mining family in Zacatecas, Mexico, won the contract to settle New Mexico. Oñate's expedition was a fully fledged colonising enterprise, and the introduction of new animals and plants was an important part of the plan. Various accounts credit Oñate with the introduction to Mexico of carrots (amongst other vegetables and a variety of herbs and spices).

It was first generally cultivated in England in the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, being introduced by the Flemings, who took refuge from the persecutions of Philip II of Spain, and who, finding the soil about Sandwich peculiarly favourable for it, grew it there largely. The vegetable was a firm favourite of Queen Elizabeth 1 of England. It seems royalty really got the ball rolling when a deputy to the English court presented Queen Elizabeth I with a tub of butter and a wreath of tender carrots emblazoned with diamonds. Lore has it that she removed the diamonds and sent the carrots and butter to the kitchen. They returned as the classic side dish: buttered carrots.

Carrots were slowly accepted for culinary usage during Elizabethan times. The yellow varieties were more popular as the purple strains turned brown and mushy when cooked.

The New World - Carrots arrived before the Mayflower. European voyagers carried the carrot to America soon after discovery of the New World.

In the reign of James I, it became the fashion for ladies to use Wild Carrot flowers and its feathery leaves and stalks to decorate their hair, their hats, dresses and coats. This was especially fashionable during the autumn months when the leaves took on a reddish colouration.

By the 1700's Holland was the leading country in carrot breeding

Thomas Jefferson (3rd President of the Unites States) raised several types of carrots in his Monticello garden.

The modern carrot came into being thanks to the efforts of French horticulturist, Vilmorin-Andrieux. Working with the common wildflower Queen Anne's lace, he produced fairly good garden types of carrot

1939/45 During the Second World War the Carrot was widely used as a substitute for scarce commodities. The Ministry of Food campaign to encourage people to eat more vegetables, resulted in the promotion of Woolton Pie, composed entirely of vegetables. Potato, carrot and swede provided the basic ingredients, with onion and cauliflower added when available. Carrots also provided the basis for a home made drink called Carrolade made from the juices of carrot and swede. Other culinary uses included carrot marmalade and toffee carrots.

In 1940 experiments with high carotene varieties were conducted to reduce night blindness in World War II pilots. In fact the pilots successes were entirely owed to the highly efficient onboard radar! The story goes that the Air Force bragged that the great accuracy of British fighter pilots at night was a result of them being fed enormous quantities of carrots and the Germans bought it because their folk wisdom included the same myth.

Because of this vegetable's inherent sweetness, it has been used for desserts and sweets long before the ubiquitous carrot cake. The Irish and English make a carrot pudding, the French make a cream with candied slivers of carrots in it, tzimmes a sweet carrot stew, is traditional for the Jewish New Year and early New Englanders gave carrot cookies as Christmas gifts.

Our doctors and nutrition experts made us believe carrots are good for us; we know that varieties with a deep orange colour are rich in carotene, or provitamin A, found also in other yellow vegetables and in green leaves. Vitamin A is found in such foods of animal origin as fish-liver oils, butter, and egg yolks.

The popular carrot, in its orange colour, rules the western carrot world. There are literally hundreds of varieties to choose from. The most widely favoured are Autumn King and Early Scarlet Horn.

In China and Japan yellow and red varieties are very popular. The purple carrot is making a comeback and is proving popular in several American States.

Modern selection and breeding now concentrates on producing strains with an even colouring, size and tender flavour

The carrot is one of the most important vegetables in the western world.

The simple, wild tap root eaten by our Neolithic ancestors has come a very long way!.

Carrots are nutritional heroes, they store a goldmine of nutrients. No other vegetable or fruit contains as much carotene as carrots, which the body converts to vitamin A. This is a truly versatile vegetable and an excellent source of vitamins B and C as well as calcium pectate, an extraordinary pectin fibre that has been found to have cholesterol-lowering properties.

unlike most other vegetables (though not all), carrots are more nutritious when eaten cooked than eaten raw (except when juiced).