Carrots are crunchy, sweet vegetables that grow underground, and the part you eat is actually the root of the plant! Most carrots you see at the store are orange, but carrots can also be purple, red, white, and yellow. Here is a surprising fact: the very first carrots that people grew hundreds of years ago were actually purple, not orange! Carrots are full of something called beta-carotene, which is a vitamin that helps keep your eyes healthy and gives carrots their bright color. Beta-carotene is even named after the carrot, since “carota” is the old word for carrot!
When you pull a carrot out of the ground, it has long, lacy green leaves called carrot tops sticking out of the soil. The carrot uses those leaves to soak up sunshine and send energy down into the root, which makes the carrot grow bigger and sweeter. Carrots take about two to three months to grow from a tiny seed to a full-sized vegetable. Rabbits do love to munch on carrots, but so do horses, guinea pigs, and lots of other animals! You can eat carrots raw as a crunchy snack, dip them in ranch dressing or hummus, or cook them in soups and stews. Some people even use carrots to bake sweet carrot cake with cream cheese frosting!
