Sweet Carrots Recipe • Longbourn Farm (2024)

FAQs

What makes carrots sweet? ›

As carrots grow, they develop terpenoids which are what give carrots their flavour. The sugars develop later on and are stored in the root. Pick too early and you'll be eating the terpenoids, without the sugars.

Just cover them with water and sprinkle them with brown sugar. Boil them until the water boils off and your carrots will be sweeter than a virgin in Spring.

Pick out larger carrots for sweetness.

The longer the carrot is in the the ground, the more sugar it can develop. These carrots will have woodier cores you may wish to remove before eating. Fresher carrots are sweeter than older ones. Most baby carrots are regular carrots cut down to size and aren't sweeter.

Lunar White carrots are very sweet, mild flavored and nearly coreless. This variety is decorative, with straight roots averaging 6 to 8 inches in length. White Carrots are typically sweeter than the orange variety and have a mild, natural taste making them perfect for eating raw.

As carrots mature, they develop terpenoids and sugars; however, the former emerges in the early stages of growth while the latter manifests in the end stages closer to harvest time. If you pick carrots too soon, they'll contain higher levels of terpenoids than sugar and end up tasting more acrid than sweet.

However, when terpenoids reach excessive amounts and are no longer balanced with sugar, they give these root vegetables that unpleasant soapy taste. It goes away once you cook the carrots, though, since the heat breaks down these compounds.

#1 Roasted

This is our CSA members' favorite way to enjoy our farm's fresh carrots. Slice or keep them whole if baby sized and toss with salt and pepper as your most basic preparation, or optionally add garlic, dill or honey to change it up. Roast on a baking sheet at 400 degrees until tender. So, so, so sweet!

You'll have to store your carrots in the refrigerator, but how you store them can actually make a difference. Raw carrots, when properly stored will usually stay fresh for around 3 to 4 weeks in the fridge. If your carrots are sliced or chopped, you can store them in the fridge and they'll last for about 2 to 3 weeks.

They're dehydrated

Your carrots might just need a big gulp of water. If you notice that your bag of carrots is bendy, place them in a glass jar or zip-top plastic bag and fill it with water to cover them. Check back in an hour; they should be firming right up.

How do you grow sweet carrots tender? ›

Fill with potting soil, water thoroughly, and allow to drain. Plant your carrots 1 1/2" - 3" apart so they have enough room to grow. Keep the soil moist and place in an area that has access to at least 6 hours of sunlight per day. Baby carrots will do better than other types of carrots in containers.

Raw carrots are naturally sweet, but lightly cooked carrots are even sweeter.

For one, these days, with all the demand, there aren't really enough weird-looking carrots to fill the need. So baby carrots are also often made with older carrots. As carrots age, the natural sugars turn to starch, which is why you might find that baby carrots frequently seem to taste a little less sweet.

White or golden carrots are typically a yellow or cream color. These vegetables have a mild flavor with hardly any of the earthiness that the other colors of carrots typically contain. These types of carrots are also notably sweeter than orange, red, and purple carrots.

Usually terpenes give a desirable taste to carrots, but in high concentrations can give undesirable taste. Factors influencing undesirable taste include genetics, growing conditions, diseases and insects, post-harvest handling and storage atmosphere.

But these cool weather veggies are at their sweetest and tastiest in the spring and fall months, and those that are smaller in size are generally going to offer a sweeter bite and more intense flavor than the oversized version of this beta-carotene rich food.