Rainbow carrots...

[Randomguy]

Why do they all taste like crap?  Every time?

[Page Turner]

...the ones you are buying must not be really fresh. The ones I buy here are pretty good for about two weeks. 

After that, I try not to eat them raw, but they are still good oven roasted, which brings out the natural sugars.

[Randomguy]

25 minutes ago, Page Turner said:

...the ones you are buying must not be really fresh. The ones I buy here are pretty good for about two weeks. 

After that, I try not to eat them raw, but they are still good oven roasted, which brings out the natural sugars.

I don't think they are old, but how would I know?  I have gotten them previously from a farmers market thinking that they wouldn't taste like crap like the ones from Trader Joe's, but they did.  This batch came from WF, and I got them because it was either the 1 lb rainbow carrots or the 5 lb normal carrots, and I didn't want 5 lbs of carrots.  I wish I hadn't bought them, and I have baked a couple and used a couple to make soup.

[Ralphie ★]

I would like to try those. I really like rainbow radishes but they are pretty darn hard to find. 

[Randomguy]

20 minutes ago, Philander Seabury said:

I would like to try those. I really like rainbow radishes but they are pretty darn hard to find. 

After four tries, I am done with them.  Carrots bred for reasons other than taste need to go away, and all the batches I have bought just sucked.  Maybe you have a carrot guy that knows better, though!

[Square Wheels]

I agree, they don't taste good.  I bought them a couple of times.  Bitter.

[Airehead]

I prefer regular carrots too. I would have bought five pounds of regular. 

[Tizeye]

6 hours ago, Randomguy said:

I don't think they are old, but how would I know?  I have gotten them previously from a farmers market thinking that they wouldn't taste like crap like the ones from Trader Joe's, but they did.  This batch came from WF, and I got them because it was either the 1 lb rainbow carrots or the 5 lb normal carrots, and I didn't want 5 lbs of carrots.  I wish I hadn't bought them, and I have baked a couple and used a couple to make soup.

I take a critical view of "farmer's markets". Locally, I goot to know a few vendors that actually had farms and grew their inventory. Most of them, if you look, have produce in boxes typically found in the wholesale market, where Trader Joe's and other grocery stores get their produce as well. They are not farmers, they are small business people renting a stall at the "farmer's market" as their shop. That may be why the carrots taste the same as those purchased at Trader Joes.

[Dirtyhip]

Carrots last a very long time. Go for the 5 pound bag next time.

[Ralphie ★]

4 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said:

Carrots last a very long time. Go for the 5 pound bag next time.

I always do, but the Mrs doesn’t like that they take up so much room. But since I plow through them so fast it only makes sense. Dorot carrots from Israel make me so much happier than any others. Hard to believe they can still be so much better after being shipped so ]}%^** far!  But I guess root veggies are known for storing well. 

[maddmaxx ★]

9 hours ago, Randomguy said:

Why do they all taste like crap?  Every time?

Have you no pride?

[Page Turner]

8 hours ago, Randomguy said:

After four tries, I am done with them.  Carrots bred for reasons other than taste need to go away, and all the batches I have bought just sucked.  Maybe you have a carrot guy that knows better, though!

...there are some interesting things in the history of carrots of  which you need to be made aware.  The first of which is that the orange ones were specifically bred in honor of a monarch, and the differently colored ones are the original way carrots evolved.  I have seen this story repeated in enough places that I have come to believe it, although I was not there.

 

With regard to sweetness (versus flat or bitter taste), both the time from harvest and the growing conditions and time of harvest have a lot to do with taste and texture.  It would not surprise me if the ones you buy in stores there are coming from California, so because they do store pretty well under refrigeration, there's a tendency for the ones in stores to be kind of old.  The ambient temps at time of harvest has a lot to do with how they taste, as does soil.

https://www.bejo.com/magazine/assessing-and-influencing

"Work by Bejo has found that a number of factors can influence the taste of carrots. In addition to soil type and crop nutrition, the area where the carrot is grown, the number of hours of sunlight it receives and other agronomic factors all have noticeable effects. “Bejo uses the results of taste trials to see how these factors can be used to improve and maintain flavour in a range of varieties around the world” says Bram Weijland, manager organic affairs. Not only could this help to make sure that what consumers taste is what the breeder intended, but it could also help to tailor carrot production for specific uses and different markets."

Sweet and Bitter Taste in Organic Carrot

"During the seedling phase no soluble sugar is stored, in the second phase only reducing sugar and in the third phase, starting some 50 days after sowing mainly sucrose is stored in the carrot root. The reduction in sugar during storage mainly concerns sucrose. The total amount of sugars do not differ so much between different parts of the carrot. No particular compound has been found that explain all phenomena connected to the harsh and bitter flavours in carrot. The appearances of such flavours are probably due to a multiplicity of compounds. Terpenes are connected both with the typical carrot taste as with harsh flavours. There are a large number of terpenes in carrot mainly in the carrot oil. They are more common in the upper part and in the phloem. The concentration of terpenes increases during growth. Higher temperatures during growing season also increase the amount of terpenes. Terpenes can mask for sweet taste but can also be less detectable by increasing sugar concentration."

 

I have grown carrots myself in the past, and even knowing what I know about them, I've gotten varied results.  You can't always control the weather, and if you're a commercial grower, you can't afford to plow under several acres of carrots just because there was a record hot spell during your growing season and they taste a little bitter.  They still look OK, so you dig 'em, bag 'em, and ship 'em.

 

The guy who grows and sells rainbow carrots in my local market here only started harvesting them a couple of weeks ago, and I have noticed they are less sweet so far than some previous years.  It's been unusually hot here for about a month and a half in August and September ...some days it was Death Valley type hot...so I'm not expecting  real sweet carrots this year.  I plan on roasting most of them with chicken, or like you, using them in soup.

[Square Wheels]

4 hours ago, Dirtyhip said:

Carrots last a very long time. Go for the 5 pound bag next time.

I don't eat enough, they seem to get slimy. 

[MickinMD ★]

14 hours ago, Randomguy said:

Why do they all taste like crap?  Every time?

Don't know. Have never been able to get the essence of rainbows to put on my carrots.

[Airehead]

6 hours ago, Tizeye said:

I take a critical view of "farmer's markets". Locally, I goot to know a few vendors that actually had farms and grew their inventory. Most of them, if you look, have produce in boxes typically found in the wholesale market, where Trader Joe's and other grocery stores get their produce as well. They are not farmers, they are small business people renting a stall at the "farmer's market" as their shop. That may be why the carrots taste the same as those purchased at Trader Joes.

Agreed. The one we frequent has one wholesaler kind of guy. Everyone else, maybe 8 produce vendors, grow what they sell. Beets and Brussels spouts were big today. Also late season tomatoes and eArly season apples. No peaches or corn. The meat guy had pork odds and ends— Lots of bacon ends and bits of ham it looked like. He also had beef shanks and whole chickens. I bought eggs. 

[Page Turner]

....I have the earliest apples I grow available on the tree right now.  My all out war of extermination on codling moth here seems to have worked. I am pleased, and had fried apple crepes for lunch today.