How the Carrot Became Orange, and Other Stories

Thousands of years ago, in what’s now Afghanistan, people unearthed
the tangled, gnarled roots of Queen Anne’s Lace—a ubiquitous,
hairy-stemmed plant with a spray of tiny white flowers. These
fibrous, twisted roots were white and bitter-tasting, but they had
an appealing spicy, pine-y, earthy aroma. This was the unpromising
ancestor of one of America’s most popular root vegetables (second
only to the mighty potato): today, it’s mostly consumed in the form
of two-inch orange slugs, marketed under the label “baby carrots.”
So how did this white, woody root become orange, as well as purple
and yellow and even red? Listen in now to find out—and hear the
story of the invention of the baby carrot. Learn more about your ad
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