Carrot

February's Farm Fresh Feature is Carrots!

By: Amelia Attwood, RD, LD

Whether you consider carrots rabbit food or allocate them solely to building a snowman in the winter, I promise you will want to give carrots a fair chance on your dinner plate. Carrots are grown in a rainbow of colors and offer serious health benefits to many of our bodily systems. Carrots overall are rich in calcium, phosphorus, and potassium, which help keep bones, nerves, and muscles strong. Carrots benefit our heart health because they contain soluble fiber. Carrots are rich in beta-carotene, the carotenoid pigment, which provides the body with plenty of vitamin A to support eye health. An excessive consumption of beta-carotene can give the skin a yellow-ish tinge.

The producers of the carrots featured at school this month are known as Harmony Valley Farm located in Viroqua, Wisconsin. The brains behind their operation, Richard de Wilde, has been growing organic vegetables since 1973. Harmony Valley Farm offers a diverse selection of fruits and vegetables as a part of their Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). They provide CSA membership to nearly 1500 families every season. Another returning producer of carrots featured at school this month is Driftless Organics located in Soldier Grove, Wisconsin. They are a 100-acre farm in the ridge and valley fields of Southwest Wisconsin. They sell fruits, vegetables, and sunflower oil across the Midwest through farmer’s markets and grocers.

The carrots served at school this month will be provided raw. The different colored carrots contain varying levels of antioxidants from pigments such as carotenoids (yellow, red, orange), anthocyanins (purple, blue), and anthoxanthins (white). These differences in pigments contribute to a slight difference in nutrient profile. Carrots are a non-starchy vegetable with a mild flavor and may be best enjoyed roasted, grilled, sautéed, boiled, or blanched. Carrots because of their mild taste may complement other vegetables that they are cooked with, try out our Winter Vegetable Chili and taste the difference.

Cooking any vegetable from its raw state can aid in digestion and absorption for sensitive stomachs. However, when vegetables are exposed to heat this can increase nutrient loss, similar to the effects of large-scale agricultural produce sold at grocers that has previously been in storage and transport over several months. Boiling and cooking vegetables in high temperatures or in water can decrease water soluble vitamins like; vitamin C and B vitamins and minerals like; potassium, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc. This is why purple vegetables, within the anthocyanin pigment, lose their color when cooked. No matter how you purchase or prepare your vegetables, they are packed with nutrients and are best consumed whichever method you are more likely to eat more of them. If you are needing more simple produce recipes, checkout our Simply Seasonal database of five ingredients or less and five steps or less recipes.

Questions about content? Email Registered and Licensed Dietitian, Amelia Attwood

Amelia Attwood RD, LD at recipes@healthyharvestni.com

National Institute of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. Dietary Supplement Fact Sheets, 2021. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/list-all/

Sutter Health, Ask an Expert. Most Nutritious Way to Cook Vegetables, (n.d). https://www.sutterhealth.org/ask-an-expert/answers/most-nutritious-way-to-cook-vegetables#:~:text=Boiling%20and%20cooking%20vegetables%20in,up%20to%2060%2D70%25

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. Fdc.nal.usda.gov.

This institution is an Equal Opportunity Provider.

We asked the kids at Clear Creek Elementary, "Does the color of the carrot change the taste? Orange, yellow, or purple; are they the same flavor?"

carrot video CC.mp4

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