The Politics of Carrot Color

Outside the Beltway

Photo by SLT

The Politics of Carrot Color

Steven L. Taylor

September 9, 2011

Comments

Wild and rather fascinating: Why are carrots orange? It is political

They’re orange for entirely political reasons: in the 17th century, Dutch growers cultivated orange carrots as a tribute to William of Orange – who lead the the struggle for Dutch independence – and the color stuck.

Who knew?

Go read the whole thing (it is brief).

h/t: Fruits and Votes

4 responses to “The Politics of Carrot Color”

Moosebreath

September 9, 2011 at 3:01 pm

And here I clicked on this post hoping for an explanation of John Boehner’s tanning regime.
michael reynolds

September 9, 2011 at 3:51 pm

Moose wins the thread right out of the gate.
john personna

September 9, 2011 at 6:13 pm

Orange is the most appetizing color to me … ah, but I’ve been shaped by a life of orange carrots.

(Would purple really look as good?)
Tim Lambert

September 9, 2011 at 6:33 pm

Alas, the source that Next Nature gives for this actually says that the political origin story is “probably apocryphal” and “Some astute historian managed to install the myth that the work an unexpected mutation was developed especially to thank King William I as a tribute to independence from Spain”