While root crops – carrots, parsnips, beetroot and the rest – are not overly glamorous vegetables, they're now coming into their own.
Some roots are highly prized. In 2012, carrots were the third most popular vegetable in the UK, with no fewer than 6,923,000 metric tons sold in supermarkets. And you’ll find a row of carrots in virtually every veg patch in the land. Given the exquisite taste of a freshly dug carrot, I’m not surprised, yet its wild ancestors were almost unusable. Stringy and forked, these carrots were purple, yellow or white and a mighty challenge to any dentures.
As with everything, fashions come and go, with vegetables regularly falling in and out of favour. Putting aside the much vaunted health benefits and magical properties of nearly every plant, two factors seem to stand out.
Firstly, Europeans have always valued sweetness. And before the large-scale introduction of sugar from American plantations in the 19th century, cooks called for sweet vegetables. Secondly, they wanted vegetables that were easy to use, even when they had an army of scullions at their beck and call. Over the centuries, growers responded by developing suitable varieties.
Carrots were winners on the sweetness stakes. As well as being used in baking, distillers took advantage of all that sugar. In 1724, Philip Miller reckoned an acre of carrots could produce enough alcohol for 168 gallons of spirit. And parsnips were used in wine and beer production. Parsnip juice was also evaporated to produce a kind of brown honey.
Although I reckon the slightly nutty, asparagus-like flavour of salsify is hard to beat, its lack of sweetness may have counted against it. The pencil-thin roots are also very difficult to process in the kitchen. It’s all circular: nobody tried to improve the plant, so it remained unpopular. Poor old salsify’s a born loser: the roots discolour on peeling and the remaining skimpy flesh isn’t worth the trouble.
Easy storage is equally important. Carrots, beets and parsnips are toughies and have always stored well. As a bonus, they’ll stay in the ground until you’re ready for them.
Over the centuries, growers have been developing varieties to suit the needs of consumers. Forked roots must always have been troublesome and were the norm until the early Middle Ages. It wasn’t till the 11th century that a variety emerged in Asia Minor with the conical root we are familiar with.
Carrot colours have waxed and waned in popularity. The original purple and violet have always been preferred in India and the east, and are now much in fashion. The origins of the ubiquitous orange carrot aren’t quite so clear. One theory traces it back to the 16th-century Spanish Netherlands. In their struggle for independence from Spain, Dutch growers may have managed to cross red and white carrots to produce the first orange ones – if true, a fine horticultural tribute to their ruler, William I of Orange. Later in the century, when Dutch protestants, the Huguenots, fled to England to escape religious persecution, they carted away some orange trophies, so the story goes.
Whether or not Dutch growers had religious motivations, breeding programmes continue. But, sadly, in my opinion, they’re designed to suit commercial producers and retailers, rather than consumers. The focus is on uniform shape, appearance, harvesting and good storage, rather than taste and nutrition.
That aside, catalogues reflect the current popularity of root vegetables. Predictably, carrots are way out in front, with one firm offering 32 varieties varying in colour, shape and disease resistance. Beetroot, mainly red, but also yellow and striped, offers a choice of between 17 and 19.
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