Carrots


Welcome to our wonderful world of Carrots! Bugs Bunny never had it so good! Whites, yellows, gold, purple, deep orange and bi-colors!  Great varieties for every sweet tooth. (Did you know that if you left “any” carrot variety to “chill” in mild sub-zero weather for 2 weeks minimum, that they will in turn become sweeter?) Lots to choose from with less sugar for Diabetic diets. We also offer some shorter versions for clay soils. All for sandy soils of course! Everyone agrees…one of the best raw “anytime” vegetables from adults right to grandchildren. No refusals here!

Will remain online for educational purposes. Operating on a “Hobby” basis.

Occasionally we may have “extra” seed. Pkts. marked below. If nothing marked…then it is “N/A”.

  1. Amarillo – almost all carrots originated in Afghanistan. Sweet yellow root has a flavor different from orange carrots. Rare. Don’t forget we have a few OTHER yellow varieties as well! Look below!
  2. Atomic – originating in India & Japan. The color comes from Lycopene, a healthy compound also found in tomatoes. Red carrots contain Lycopene in high amounts, which is instrumental in the prevention of heart disease. Pinkish red when harvested, they turn a deep blood red when cooked. Becoming sweeter & tender with age! 70-75 days
  3. Autumn King – A heirloom Nantes type, with deep orange flesh and a reddish core. A large stump rooted variety, that will perform excellently in storage if left quite late in its harvest. Reputation for doing very well in cooler weather. Was awarded the RHS Award of Garden Merit. Can be harvested at 75 days, but will develop larger & become sweeter, if left to 120 days. Can grow to 12″ long x 3″ wide!     
  4. Belgium White – Records indicate this one has been in existence since mid 1800’s. It has very long roots (often over 1 ft !) which push themselves out of the ground several inches and thus form green shoulders. Roots are not as sweet (great for diabetic diets) or as much flavor as the orange roots, but produce very well. Well enough to feed ALL your rabbits…horse…& chickens! Stores well.  
  5. Berlicum – Known to be very popular in Europe, because of their excellent flavor and their ability to stay tender and not get woody. Lovely deep orange roots are approx. 8″ long, extra smooth with a blunt ends. Perfect for vegetables sales.
  6. Black Spanish –
  7. Brilliance – a core-less variety that just happens to be high in beta-carotene content, making these very deep orange, as well as healthy! Nantes type.  
  8. Chantenay Red Core – this variety was introduced in 1989! (Not exactly a heirloom) It is a large stump-rooted carrot with a deep red/orange center. Great for juicing and fresh eating. (…not for diabetic diets…because of its high sugar content…) Heavy yielder in clay soils, with a blunt end. 6” to 7” long. Fine textured. Sweetness increases 2 fold in cold fall weather. Great for winter storage and freezing. 62-74 days       Limited    Pkt…$2.50
  9. Cosmic Purple –  Farmers’ markets have become more exciting since this variety moved in! Fun new carrot with its purple/red skin and orangy/yellow core. Flavor is sweet and spicy. Roots are approximately 8” in length. 
  10. Danvers Half Long – the original “D. H. L.” dates back to the 1870! Market growers/gardeners featured it near Danvers, Massachusetts in 1871. One strain was imported in 1940. An old American carrot that is dependable, adaptable AND sweet! Deep orange, tapered, thick roots of 7” have good flavor & are very productive. Fine grained. Grows well in heavy soils and performs excellent in cold storage. 66-72 days      Pkt….$2.50
  11. Deep Purple – I am very excited to introduce a variety of carrots that are not only very deep purple on the outside, but this same exciting color is right through to the core! Roots are 10-12″ long, slimmer than “Danvers”. Have heard that the original carrots from Turkey appeared much like these…called Black Carrots being almost true black all the way thru. Can you imagine staining your tongue and teeth on these juicy morsels and then showing someone how ill you really are?!
  12. Gold King Select – Stumpy 6” roots. If you have impervious soil, this one should produce a fine crop for you. Great for mass production. Good for canning (pickles) and freezing as well. 
  13. Jaune Obtuse de Doubs –  Here is a bright sunshine yellow carrot first offered to the livestock, for heavens sake, before we discovered it and kept it for ourselves! (‘Am told…) it was first mention in 1894, in France. This big, thick carrot variety has fine sweet flavor…hard to find in one of this size!  
  14. Kuroda Oriental variety. Giant tapered roots, about 7” long & 2 – 3” wide. Disease and heat resistant. Roots mature to 500g (1lb) or larger, without losing sweetness and flavor. Should be seeded thinly right from the start. Does exceptionally well in all soils. (This I can tell you from personal experience!) 70 days    
  15. Kuttingen White – (aka Blanche de Kuttingen)  White varieties were common in Europe in the 1700’s. Here is a heirloom from the Old Swiss Canton of Aargau. (According to “Wikipedia, org.) Aargau is one of its most northerly “state/provinces” of Switzerland, situated by the Aare River. It is also one of the most densely populated regions of the country. Fine textured, tasty flesh and not too sweet. This variety made a come-back as a gourmet delicacy (in the 20th century) being the creamiest of all the whites. Untypical for a white, one of the shortest at 6 to 8” and one of the widest. A beautiful shape, very similar to good Chantenay types. Extremely rare! 70 days  Limited    Pkt…$2.50
  16. Lobbericher Yellow – info. coming soon…
  17. Ljublijana Yellow – (aka Lubiana) Folks saying a rare heirloom orig. from Croatia…but I beg to differ. By it’s name alone, it may have originated from the small country of Solvenia, capital city is Ljublijana. According to history (…there was a ton of turbulent takeovers!), the city of Ljublijana (a hybrid of Germanic and Slovene origins…) was only recently (1918) named thus, because of a river by the same name flowing thru and the country being a key trade route from ancient times to today. (Also note, there is a small town in Poland by the same name!) This variety is large, long, with yellow to yellow/orange coloration. Being a Danvers shape, it matures in 75 days (c/o John Navazio) with tall vigorous tops. If harvested early fall, will be a bit dry and almost starchy tasting. “Lubiana” sweetens with age (like fine wines) after storage of several months, when carbs. within convert to sugars. Extremely rare and I am working to bring this beauty back into circulation! Watch for offerings in the near future…
  18. Lunar White – (aka White Lunar ) Documentation shows white carrots being around since the mid 1700’s. And until now, were becoming very rare. In early times, this “OP” variety was used as animal fodder. (What a waste, as they are quite tender and grow to great lengths) Their only draw-back, is their inherent lack of extreme sugar! In my humble opinion, sugar masks the great flavor! Why should we demand SUGAR in ALL our vegetables??? Grown and offered before orange carrots became available. A vigorous producer of wider shoulders & roots than some other whites, at 8″+. These are creamy white with small cores.  60-70 day
  19. Muscade – A rare form from North Africa. Yielding blocky roots that can grow to 7″. These are deep orange, crisp with a crunchy texture and excellent flavor.
  20. Nantes Half Long – a really reliable variety…longer than most , able to penetrate hard clay soils. Always does well by me.     Pkt….$2.50
  21. Oxheart Bare heirloom from France, before 1884. A densely textured, short, stubby carrot. Broad top tapering into a pointy root tip…just like an oxheart! Good flavor, raw or cooked. Good source of fiber, potassium and Vitamin A. Can grow to 1 lb. each. Stores well in a root cellar. Suited to heavy soils and new gardens, which haven’t been cultivated deeply enough. Always find a few patches of these showing up in the unlikely of places…every year! 65-85 days   
  22. Paris Market – (aka Parisienne) It would seem the French offered this one in the 19th Century. A super cute, very uniform across the variety, perfect ball type of 1 1/2″ in diameter. Skin is smooth and taste is sweet with slightly more fiber than some others. Crop is early because of its size. Would perform perfectly in pots!  
  23. Phalzer Yellow – Loved the amber/yellow, smooth skinned look of these. Roots grew not too long like some of the white forms tend to do. No green crowns and slightly tapered in at the top, as was at the bottom. Flavor was better than I expected…quite sweet for a heirloom yellow. More seed coming soon….
  24. Purple Dragon – Purple carrots were grown by Ancient Egyptians, Romans and the Chinese. This one refined by Dr. John Navajio, originally from China. Maybe more successful in colder northern regions as they develop poorly in the heat of the south. May need more moisture than some others. (Plant on the north side of a corn row…) These are deep purple skinned on the outside and orange on the inside. Sweet and spicy. A “fun” variety, so have “a go” at it! 90 days  
  25. Purple Haze – roots are 10-12” long, tapered like Imperator. Smooth, deep purple/black skin hiding a bright orange center. Cooking dissolves some of the purple color! Best served raw. Sweet flavor. Different. 70 days.  
  26. Purple Rain – Here is a (F1) purple/black (inside & out) variety more darker than “Purple Dragon“. Also appeared longer and slimmer in form.
  27. Pusa Asita Black – Work of this fine variety, done by Pritam Kalia of the Indian Agric. Res. Institute, India. Released in 2008. Foliage is purplish green. Intense purple black (to the core) variety that’s nutrient rich and packed with antioxidants. Roots are 15-20cm long, quite tapered, having a sweet fruity taste and retain their color when cooked!  Was originally selected to tolerate hot (short day) summers. Ones grown here showed slightly more fine hairs on the surface than most others. 90-100 days      Pkt…$2.50
  28. Red Elephant – Australian heirloom variety from the late 18th century into the early 19th century. Production was no longer offered after 1910. Fast growing large roots offer deep red flesh. A late storage type that has no hard core and remains quite sweet and juicy despite its size.
  29. Red Samurai – I rarely offer an F1, but received these and now feel I need to let them into some good hands before they lose their vitality! Here is a very slender tapered variety of ? dark red orange roots. There did appear with some small % variations as most commercial packets do show. But still worthy of growing, tho not for seed saving purposes unless you know what you are doing and are in it for the journey…of at least 5 years!
  30. Rumba – Unknown history. This variety is a refined Nantes type with a cylindrical blunt root and deep orange flesh. Great storage quality.  
  31. Scarlet Nantes – History unknown. Cylindrical roots of 7” long by 1½” wide. Bright reddish/orange flesh, fine grained texture, nearly coreless, sweet, crisp with great flavor. Freezes well, stores well (in sand) and is a fine juicer. The entire variety is quite uniform. 67-70 days
  32. Snow White – Pretty white roots with green shoulders. Compared to other whites…very mild and sweet. Nice raw or cooked. Very worth trying. 75-80 days
  33. St.Valery/James Scarlet – A heirloom, as mentioned by Vilmorin’s of France in 1885, as having been around for a “long time”. A sweet carrot that can grow 10 to 12” long. (Mine which I trialed were much shorter – in fact they happened to be the shortest of the lot!) Very productive with a small core and small leaves. 50-80 days.   
  34. Titan – a uniform Nantes type that offers bright orange skin & flesh. The variety resists cracking, even after much heat and later a lot of rain in the season. Intense orange color in the carrot kingdom, indicates high carotene, which converts its wonderful Vitamin A for our body’s benefit.
  35. Tonda di Pardi – (aka Tonda di Parigi) Another French heirloom…possible contributing parents of “Thumbelina”. Round baby carrots with deep orange, sweet flesh. Harvest when roots are 1” to 2” deep and long. When overly mature, the fiber content definitely increases! (They become harder to bit!) Great in super hard heavy soils or where the ground was barely worked.   
  36. Turkish Purple – obtained this variety from a gardening guru Michael Howe of Ontario this year and decided to immediately sow them. From his photo…purest black…10″ long and tapered. So happy to see almost all 50 seeds germinate. Then the tiniest ?6 legged creatures arrived…mini grasshoppers! By the time I figured out WHO? Almost half were gone! So then I had about 13. From these 13, half did not offer much of a root system and then half of the half…bolted! Not great! Would I honestly say I have about 1/2 dozen…? Maybe? But it is better than nothing. So next year…it is on to better days.   
  37. Yellow Solar An “OP” variety believed to be the same as “ Belgium Yellow”, mentioned in Peter Henderson’s Catalog of 1886. Origination may have been from the Middle East. By the 14th Century, this type was found to have spread to Southern Europe. Roots are bright yellow, 6” – 7”, thick and sweet. One of the shortest, yellow heirloom carrot varieties. 70-75 days
  38. Yellowstone –  Roots offer a crisp sweet flavor and a bright butter yellow color. Grows approximately 8″ long…great for heavy clay soils.  Shoulders are more wide and core is greenish, compared to others.
  39. Yellow Sun – a variety of yellow (F1) carrot that appears quite similar to Phalzer, with a hint more pure yellow. Roots are wider at the shoulder, shorter and tapered. An attractive var. with great potential for de-hybridizing and finding some great yellow carrot genetics here. It has come to my attention that any variety of vegetable can experience “burnout” (lacks energy in germination and appearance…) if there is not enough genetics saved in the bunch. Purists suggest that at least 40 + roots be saved from various lots in the carrot connection. Be aware of Queen Anne’s Lace in the “one mile” or less vicinity. If it crosses, your next generation will be rendered woody & useless. Also recommended to grow only one variety AND keep it away from all others for at least a mile.