I'm pretty certain Ann T. would say.....YES! :)

Have you tried organic carrots? I don't like "baby carrots" AT ALL.... They sit in too much moisture in the package for too long and I think they smell musty/moldy from not being at the proper temperature. I prefer to purchase dry carrots, not bagged ones, if they are available. Our grocery store still sells ones with the greens still on them (the kind Captain Kangaroo used to give Bunny Rabbit).

Another problem is from warehousing them for long periods of time. If they are placed in a less-than-clean cooler during storage, they will probably pick up that musty/moldy smell and taste from storage.

-Grainlady

wash'em first - really helps with the dirt taste.

;-)

IAS, I think the dwindling farmland is making for heavier crop rotation and less land being left to rest and regain it's nutrients and nothing has the characteristic taste it had a few decades ago. You feed a chicken marigolds it turns gold, you feed a carrot from an overworked field it tastes like dirt. But hey that's just speculation on my part...

I don't think tasteless carrots are anything new. The 12 years we were on the acreage in Calgary I grew bushels of carrots each year and they were delicious. Even covered in dirt because many I would eat right out of the ground after wiping on my shirtsleeve etc. before they reached the house. Storebought ones uggghhh, like eating dried wood chips but that's what I'm faced with now unless I can find a sunny little patch next spring.
The secret of growing enough carrots is to totally obliterate from you brain the fact that you have to plant them in neat and tidy little rows evenly spaced. That is a total waste of space and you will never have enough for more than a couple of meals..
Do the exact opposite and sow the seeds in square or rectangular patches just like you would grass seed, by scattering them. As the seeds germinate and begin to poke thru the ground you just pull a rake thru them to thin out, as they get bigger you may have to do this again but you may also have plenty of baby carrots down there to pick. As you pick out the baby carrots you are in effect thinning the patch again leaving more room for the other carrots to grow bigger,, and so on and so on and so on.. Endless carrots. It works.

Good timing on this topic- last night my contribution was roasted veggies which included carrots. I buy the bulk type too, I've found that they usually have the best flavor versus the bagged or heaven forbid the baby ones! Our hostess last night made a new carrot dish with maple syrup. Not only was her sauce tasteless, the carrots had no flavor either! My roasted veggies were sweet and well received. I think that roasting helps to bring out the sweetness, but tasteless carrots are something that Dh has been complaining about for a number of years. We might have to find a patch to cultivate!! LOL!

Not to beat a dead horse :), but this is probably the #1 reason I started buying locally grown produce ... "taste" and for me that is the bottom line.

Factory farming ... bleh !!

I agree with you Maryanne. I have trouble growing root veggies in my garden because of all the shale. So, I buy carrots when I want them. Regular carrots always have a slightly bitter taste to me if they have any at all. I buy the baby carrots a lot, but you need to use them quickly (two weeks maximum) after buying or they get soggy. The baby carrots still taste like carrots to me.

I'll have to try the organic carrots.

Carrots not tasting like...... well - carrots......has been a current topic at my dinner table. I love carrots, but agree they have not been very tasty. My dog begs for carrots at the frig door, so I buy her the bagged baby carrots. Even she has been rejecting them! For yesterday's dinner, I bought organic with the tops still on them. They were better, but way too much dirt too deal with. Interesting that others agree, but what do we buy? Most of my shopping is at a local, family owned store, and because of their size (or lack of) their turnover is high and they strive for fresh produce - so I wonder what to look for.
Ohiomom - you are lucky you are able to buy locally grown. I saw your pic of TG dinner - and thought how cool! We support the watermen and their catches here! I agree with you to buy fresh and local as much as you can.

I know what you mean, but I found a brand that actually tasted fantastic. Look for bunny-luv organic carrots.

For the big day, I made a shallot-blue cheese dip that I served with assorted veggies and I picked up a bag of these carrots and they were the best I have tasted in along time. They were bagged, pre-cleaned and cut into fingers for dipping. Caught a couple of kids eating carrots with NO dip AT ALL, if that tells you anything.

Yes it's true, those you find in the grocery store aren't very good. I bought some frozen ones at Kroger that were the best carrots I had ever eaten. It was their own brand. Their brand of veggies is called Private Selection or Prime Select or some such name. Then they quit carrying the carrots, wouldn't you know. I went to every Kroger in town and finally asked and was told they won't have them any more. Later I learned that just like Vidalia onions, part of the goodness of carrots depends on the soil they were grown in.

IMO Night and day with Organic...I find especially Tomatos

I have to agree with Beverly on the dirt having much to do with taste, especially with root vegetables. Even the veggies grown in southern IL taste different then what we grew in Northern IL.

When we had our garden our onions, potatoes and celery were so good, I could not believe the difference!!!

BTW, I've not had a good carrot in probably 10 years or so. However, I do get very good parsnips but then you loose the nice orange color, so I mix it up.

Cindy, I don't think we have bunny-luv brand here, but I will watch for them.

Mago, my dogs love carrots too. Carrots do not leave crumbs in my pockets so I use them as bait when training. And they are not a problem going through a wash cycle either. :0)

Michelle

They've been tasting like dirty cardboard (or what I imagine that would taste like) for years.

But the other day at Trader Joes I spotted some baby carrots (with about an inch of the greens still attached, so I'm assuming true baby carrots and not whittled carrtots). I decided to take a chance on them, and they were really good. I ended up eating them out of hand rather than in any recipes.

I stopped buying the cut down "baby carrots" because they became slimy very fast. I went back to the carrots you have to peel and cut because they tasted better, sweeter. The ones in my garden taste the strongest and depending on the time of year, the sweetest. My dog loves carrots too and digs them up in the garden when she wants a snack. And always begs for one when I open up the refrigerator.
Clare

well it's good to know it's not just me!

i have purchased in the last few years every conceivable brand, the regular ones, the mini baby carrots and the fatter ones and they are just not good. doesn't matter if they are coming from the supermarkets or the farmer's market....they just taste like dirt. and cleaning them doesn't take the dirt taste away! many years ago i used to grow them, i'm going to have to go back to it.

i will keep a look out for the bunny luv and see if they are any better.

maryanne

Maybe, you all are just finding out now what I've always known. Carrots suck!!!!!!

Ann

the other thing; there are numerous different varieties of carrots you can grow yourself. Probably +90 % of the store carrots are Nantes coreless which in themselves can be tasty but not at the size they grow them to for selling. They're best at baby to fountain pen size after which they start to get a more pronounced woody taste. Some of the seed types you can buy for growing at home are globes and smaller fingerling types which are much sweeter

it is very irritating to pay the premium price for "organic" carrots and find the size varies from skinny mini to fat albert. And "baby carrots" ... read the fine print -- most of the time it's "baby-cut" or some such moniker which means cut to fool you. And yet, I still love carrots, but admit there's a thin line between "earthy tasting" and "tastes like dirt"

Ann, Don't be shy. Tell us how you REALLY feel. :D

PKguy, that's a good description for the ones I found at TJ's - slightly larger than a fountain pen.

I buy the organic ones and find they do taste better as do the tomatos and bannanas. My dogs will not eat regular banannas but love the organic ones. I don't know if its the taste or if they are able to smell the chemicals or something in conventional ones.

Pk, thanks for the sowing tip..I'm going to get back to veggie gardening this spring, summer and fall. Hubby'll come home one day and find new raised beds..I'm gonna build them myself..my old garden patch needs to be refurbished...it'll be easier to build new stuff..LOL

I'm with Ohiomom, local carrots are theonly ones we buy. Happily carrots are a good storage crop so our farmers can even sell carrots in May. We have a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share summer and winter. So I have excellent carrots most of the winter.

The bagged baby carrots aren't just whittled, they are also steamed so the outside softens a little. This is why they become slimy and gross.

Anyone ever read The Omnivore's Dilemma? Apparently the soil also affects the nutritional value of the crops. So if the carrots have no taste they are probably almost a nutritional void as well.

-Robin

I am surprised that no one has mentioned irradiation, which is now a common practice for fruits and vegetables in the higher end grocery stores. It is totally unregulated in the US at the moment and they may legally also irradiate organic fruits and vegetables. Last week, I watched the FDA hearings on carbon monoxide spraying of meat, which has the same effect on meat as irradiation does on vegetables. Sometimes both are used in conjunction.

It keeps the outside fresh-looking and pristine, while the item begins to deteriorate and lose its taste but it doesn't look spoiled -it looks as fresh as the day it was picked or butchered but is past its prime on the inside.

The process is rather expensive so is more often found in those stores where customers are more concerned about the appearance than the actual taste.

So first I would check with the produce manager of where the carrots were purchased and ask if they irradiate or treat their produce with carbon monoxide. They are not currently required to disclose if they do, although Wegman's has admitted to both practices.

Then I would find the grocery store in your area which has the highest proportion of food stamp customers and buy a bag of carrots from there, taste and compare.

I can't STAND those bagged baby carrots! Nasty, musty, fuzzy and just plain Icky!
Sometimes I get good carrots....sometimes not....look at the package carefully. There should be no rootlets coming out of the carrot....and av estage of green at the top end is a good thing.
The best carrots come from the farmer's market.
But...I just don't understand all these kids that eat baby carrots dipped in Ranch dressing...a nd they think ( or their parents think!) they are eating a vegetable!
Blech!!
Linda C

I haven't had too much trouble with carrots... I usually buy the skinniest ones I can find in the one pound package from the small grocery store and try to get them as soon as they come in... But the celery... My goodness, talk about bad... After a day in the fridge I have to toss it out, it smells up everything... If it happens to get 'lost' in the veggie drawer and I don't find it for more than a week it's half rotten... Thank God for celery seeds....

Rita

The carrots we buy here are ugly, twisted, squat or broken in halves...they wouldn't be seen in a food pic in the glossy magazines as are some thin and beautiful carrots, but they taste wonderful and are locally grown on this island.

I try to put carrot into our meals nearly every day as the beta-carotene is such a healthy boost to the immune system when it converts to vitamin A and according to Dr. Miriam Stoppard in her book "Defying Age", ...."Women who eat at least five carrots a week are nearly two-thirds less likely to have a stroke compared with women who eat carrots once a month." (This book is on women's health......one of the books I picked up this summer in Canada.) But of course they're good for everyone.....and we enjoy them.

I have tried those plastic bagged baby carrots....just once.
They are just as bad here as elsewhere so I stick to buying our funny-looking fresh ones.

Off topic I know, but on the link below there's a short book review about this book which is loaded with advice on nutrition and how to stay young. :-)

SharonCb

Here is a link that might be useful: Book review