Add colour with carrots
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Food
At this time of the year, locally grown vegetables are limited by the end of the winter production and the start of spring, which arrives as a cold and blustery front with a few hailstorms thrown in for good measure.
This unsettled weather either makes or breaks our summer food production. Hail in Renwick has damaged a lot of our stone fruits (plums, apricots and nectarines) and the biting winds make ripening of our outdoor strawberries and cherries extend until Mother Nature tells us she is ready, which is not necessarily when we want.
Spring carrots are now available and add colour to the plate as we wait for the rest of the garden to catch up. Small, sweet and freshly dug, these vegetables are steeped in history, dating back tens of thousands of years. In the past the carrot seeds were used more for medicine than the root was for eating.
Originating from Afghanistan and Turkey, carrots were traded around the world before the Dutch turned them orange (carrots were originally yellow, black, red and green) as an emblem of the House of Orange Nassau and the struggle for Dutch independence. At one point during World War II there was a glut of carrots, and the government of the day let it be known that carotene, which is believed to help night vision, was largely responsible for the RAF's increasing success in shooting down enemy bombers.
While spring carrots are best simply washed and steamed or quickly boiled, the key is simplicity and freshness. The jury is out on the question of whether carrots are more nutritious raw than cooked.
Clearly a raw carrot has more goodness in it and, therefore, you would assume, it is the healthiest way to eat it. But unless the carrot is juiced, then consumed, the body cannot break down the goodness because of its cellular nature.
It goes without saying that your mum was right: If you don't eat all your veges you won't get any pudding!
- The Marlborough Express
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