Is it a myth? A made up story? What happened to carrots back in the 16th and 17th centuries? One explanation is that in the 17th century, farmers in the Netherlands cultivated orange carrots as a tribute to William of Orange who’d led the fight for Dutch independence. The color is said to have stuck after that.
Before, the carrots were shades of purple, red, yellow and white—no orange. Scholars say that orange carrots unlikely existed before this point in time, hence the theory.
The long orange Dutch carrot, which was first noted down in writing back in 1721, is the carrot that came before the orange Horn varieties that are so abundant in modern times. The Horn carrot originates from Hoorn, a town in the Netherlands.
Suzy Khimm from the Washington Post, writes, “…the Dutch themselves have used the orange carrot as a political weapon during the rise and fall of the House of Orange. According to historian Simon Schama, in the late 18th century, the Dutch Patriot movement that revolted against the House of Orange saw the vegetable as an offensive tribute to the monarchy. After forcing the reigning descendant of William of Orange to leave The Hague, the Patriots declared that orange was “the color of sedition… carrots sold with their roots too conspicuously showing were deemed provocative.”
So up until today, many folk in the Netherlands confirm that orange carrots were originally a tribute to the House of Orange, as Dutch tourism outfits will attest. It’s likely that all our carrots have descended from what took place in the Netherlands.
The earliest vegetable related to the carrot dates from the 10th century in Asia Minor and Persia; it would have looked a bit different. It’s said that the carrots back then were originally purple or white, with a thin root, but then a mutation occurred which removed the purple pigmentation, and this is how yellow carrots came to be. Eventually, orange carrots were developed from that.
The Carrot Museum explains that the carrot has a complex and very unclear history, which is surrounded by doubt and enigma, so it’s difficult to pin down when domestication took place; meaning it may make more sense to remote view the past.
I think Courtney Brown over at the Farsight Institute should put together a new project to find the truth behind the orange carrot, and include its origins! His previous remote viewing projects on events in history—and the future—have proven very fruitful.
For those interested in remote viewing, we have a board dedicated to the subject over on our community forum, The Roundtable.
Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/carrots-are-orange-for-an-entirely-political-reason/2011/09/09/gIQAfayiFK_blog.html
https://www.nextnature.net/2009/08/why-are-carrots-orange-it-is-political/
http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/history5.html
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