Carrots

 

At Country Matters Hexton, we collect our fresh fruit and veg on a Thursday and this will normally include carrots and wherever possible these will be as local as possible.  You can buy as many as you want and you can bring your own bag, or we will pop them in a brown paper bag.

Did you know that: 

• Carrots were first grown as medicine.
• They were originally purple, red, white, black or yellow.
• They were imported to Europe in the 14th century, and into UK in the 15th century.
• Orange carrots were bred by the Dutch to match the House of Orange.
• In WW2 carrots were used to make marmalade and fizzy drinks.
• Apparently weight-loss-friendly food, linked to lower cholesterol levels and improved eye health.
• Their carotene antioxidants have been linked to a reduced risk of cancer.
• There is an entire website dedicated to the carrot
• 
  

And let's be frank they are excellent value, you can boil them, roast them, mash them, make soup bake them - would love to hear what you do with yours

Lovely carrot cake recipe here:

There is an entire museum devoted to the carrot (well virtual anyway)

www.carrotmuseum.co.uk

and it tells you that:
"There are good reasons to include carrots in human diet, since they are enriched with carotenoids, phenolic compounds, polyacetylenes, and vitamins and by this reason they may help reduce the risk of some diseases. Experimental evidence has reported that these carrot compounds exert antioxidative, anticarcinogenic, and immunoenhancer effects. Anti-diabetic, cholesterol and cardiovascular disease lowering, anti-hypertensive, hepatoprotective, renoprotective, and wound healing benefits of carrot have also been reported. The mechanism by which these carrot compounds decrease the risk of some diseases is complex and sometimes largely unknown. The cardio- and hepatoprotective, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic effects of carrot seed extracts are also noteworthy.

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