"The Yellow Carrot And Its Green Shoulders"
Bitter substances stimulate our digestion.
As soon as they enter the mouth, they stimulate bile, liver and the pancreatic glands to produce enzymes that increase the nutritional absorption.
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Bitter substances also have a detoxifying effect in the liver by stimulating the excretion of toxins.
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I make the world how it suits me
The Dutch also thought so in the 17th Century, they changed the originally yellow carrot in honor of their King William of Orange and simply colored the carrot orange with the aid of beta-carotene.
The yellow root seems to be experiencing a revival in Germany and is finding its way back onto our plates.
A good occasion to take a closer look at this root. We tasted and compared the varieties "Fischermühle", in the usual Dutch Orange with seed-resistant breeds from Southern Germany: the "Palatine Yellow" and the "Gochsheimer Yellow".
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The color change is simply due to the dye lutein, that is suppressed by beta-carotene. Now this does matters from a nutritional-physiological point of view! Why? Because the yellow carrot brings light - and not just visually. The good old yellow carrot brightens our mood were it‘s orange sister brings us heat.
Barely chewing the yellow kind, we become aware of a strong physical sensation, for the yellow carrot has apparently the power to unite body and spirit and bring it into harmony. With it‘s fruity-sweet taste it induces an almost childlike perception of the word : "Here I am now and see the world right now very clearly and undisguised", to put it in a nutshell.
Maybe that's why our grandmothers told us to eat our carrots not just because they contain vitamins and are good for the eyes. Perhaps she still knew about these other qualities.
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In fact, we can feel a relaxation throughout our bones and muscles. The yellow varieties literally straightens us up from our core to the head and sends healing messages to where we need to get into balance most.
A real remedy it seems! Even after the tasting we can still feel these powerful effects on our body and soul.
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All in all, a completely sustainable crop, which is currently making its way back into the light of the kitchen. Do not take it personally, dear Holland, the orange carrots had their spot in the limelight. But now it is time for the yellow carrot to shine brightly.
Yellow just shines brighter!
A new topic for you and your customers! What about the green color on the top of the carrot? The so called green shoulders. Can you eat this?
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You can not only, you should!
We know that in nightshade plants like the potatoe and the tomatoe we should avoid foliage and green spots because they contain Solanin. On other crops, however, green spots and the bitter parts are very beneficial. We have noticed that the green spots on the carrot does not necessarily taste very bitter! These contain substances of phytochemicals found also in chicory and olives. How strong they are in carrots depends, among other things, on the weather conditions during cultivation and their maturity.
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Dr. med. Ludger Linnemann from the research ring for biodynamic farming in Darmstadt, confirmed the beneficial phytochemicals within carrots.
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In a study carried out at the Julius Kühn Institute and the Technical University of Munich in 2015 *, it has been found that the bitter substance present in carrots can have a particularly positive effect on our health. Without delving too much into the technical terms: It is a substance that belongs to the oxylipins (oxylipins are products of oxygen and polyunsaturated fatty acids). This oxylipin should, according to the study, "have (a) potential for improving human health due to its anticarcinogenic, antifungal, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and serotonergic effects."
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"The bitter substances are also produced during storage and by stress caused during harvest. So even without the invisible green color measurable amounts of bitter substances can be found. The article says it has positive effects on the digestive system."
so Dr. Linnemann.
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We say: Eat Carrots!
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*Quelle: Bioactive C17-Polyacetylenes in Carrots (Daucus carota L.): Current Knowledge and Future Perspectives Corinna Dawid, Frank Dunemann, Wilfried Schwab, Thomas Nothnagel and Thomas Hofmann
J. Agric. Food Chem., 2015, 63 (42), pp 9211–9222
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