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Why are American carrots so skinny?
I know this is a weird thing to ask, but google is failing me and I don't have enough agricultural knowledge to know where to start looking. I'm hoping this isn't another food thing I'm the only one who thinks about.
I love carrots but I'm increasingly irritated by the tiny long carrots that I can find in the markets. I just bought a bag of carrots that had a number of them thinner than my pinky finger. In the meanwhile whenever I look at cooking shows on Youtube that are made in other countries they have thicker, longer, or otherwise more substantial carrots. The ones in Japan seem huge; some of them look like they have a 2" diameter!
Is it just that they are using a different variety? If so, why would they be using those tiny ones here?
They are just different varieties grown for different purposes. These are most common carrots I see:
Long, thick carrots with a very even, round shape and relatively little taper: These are bred to be very uniform (at the cost of flavor and productivity) because this makes it easier for them to be machine processed in situations where physical appearance matters (vegetable platters, chunky vegetable soup, etc.). They are also frequently sold whole in supermarkets because they are easy to peel and look nice when cut up. They are usually pretty bland when cooked, so they are typically intended to be eaten raw or only lightly cooked, but they are also popular in cooked dishes that call for nice-looking sliced carrots (e.g., large, even rounds).
Big carrots that are are typically tapered, may be misshapen, and often have an uneven color: These are bred for high productivity (at the cost of flavor and appearance). They are used in commercial processing where appearance does not matter (e.g., puree for soups and baby food), and they are also sold for livestock feed. Some supermarkets sell them in bulk for people who juice their own carrots or (in rural areas) people who keep horses.
Small, thin, heavily-tapered carrots, often sold in bunches with the leaves still attached: These are old-fashioned, gourmet carrots that are bred primarily for flavor (at the cost of uniformity and productivity). They are intended to be cooked whole rather than sliced, and they are particularly popular roasted. They are also much more expensive by weight than other carrots. In my experience, these used to be extremely rare in supermarkets (you had to go to farmer's markets to get them), but they have become substantially more popular now because shoppers increasingly prefer flavor over appearance these days (e.g., see the fall of Red Delicious apples, which were bred to be very uniform and to not turn brown when sliced).
Some varieties are multi-purpose and straddle some position between these broad groupings. But as a general rule, the smaller and thinner a carrot is (excluding so-called "baby carrots", which are machine-processed to be that size and shape), the more expensive it will be, the more flavorful it will be, and the more suited it is to cooking.
Based on your post, it sounds like you live in an expensive area with a lot of foodies. I would recommend visiting a somewhat lower-income locale to find the carrots you're looking for. (However, note that you are very unlikely to find these carrots with the leaves still on. This is an upmarket feature because the carrots have to be handled a lot more delicately throughout harvest, processing, and shipping to avoid damaging the leaves. The leaves add absolutely nothing to the carrot's quality or freshness; carrots lose their leaves to go dormant in winter and can live for months without them, just like potatoes).
(+1 Informative)
The kinds of carrots I see do, indeed, change depending on where I go shopping. Generally speaking, I don't shop at upscale markets. The most upscale market I go to is called Sprouts Farmer's Market, which isn't a farmer's market and I don't buy produce there because weirdly it's not terribly high quality either. The last bag of carrots I bought - the ones I was complaining about - were from Target and were bought out of convenience because I was there for hard goods. They were, indeed, sweeter than the ones I normally get, but were without the greens.
The first group is basically what I'm looking for. It's possible that that's what I'm finding - the majority of them, perhaps - but I'm not finding thick ones like that picture shows. They max out at about an inch in diameter, and average probably around 2/3"
On occasion, I can find carrots that remind me of the second category, and there are indeed some that are thick that I can find if I really want to rustle through a bin of carrots, but like you mentioned they tend to be odd shapes and are difficult to work with.
My supermarket has both, actually: bunches of the skinny carrots (with greens) and loose, trimmed fat carrots. Maybe shop around a bit?
I've got a ton of grocery stores that I can go to, and there are some markets that have larger carrots available, but the vast majority of them only sell super skinny ones sold bundled in plastic bags. Of those who do have the larger carrots, they're generally very long ones that don't get much thicker than the shorties. None of them sell a "whole" carrot with the green; I've only ever seen that at a farmer's market when I was 50+ miles away from home.
That’s odd, anecdotally every grocery store I’ve been to in Vancouver (at least a couple dozen) sells carrots in bunches with the greens.
Is it possible you live a long distance from carrot farms? The farther you are from the source, the lower quality you'll get.
Perhaps? I live in California, and I know that the state grows a lot of them. But it's a big state so it's possible I'm just too far away.
Oh wow, I'm out of ideas. I'm not sure how anywhere in California would be too far. Either the supply chain is broken or they're growing them thin on purpose.
So in Northern U.S. farm country, it isn't just the varieties of carrots grown, but the length of time they're left in the ground before harvest. As /u/RoyalHenOil and /u/Moogles suggested, it's usual for market carrots to be harvested at smaller diameters.
The commonest commercial varieties tend to have fewer bitter compounds in the skin. They're still relatively sweet when harvested at smaller diameters where the proportion of skin to core is high. But those bitter chemicals in the skin also repel insects and defend against soil-borne diseases. If the carrot roots are left to grow longer, you'll need carrot varieties that don't have the sweetness desired by U.S. customers for fresh eating.
Where I am, you can easily get 50 lb. bags of giant 2" diameter carrots that are sold as deer or pig feed. They're perfectly fine when peeled for use in soups, stews, and roasting, but definitely less sweet for fresh eating.
Japan has some terrific root vegetable varieties that have been bred for both productivity and taste, but they're scarce here.
That's intriguing. Im a bit of a carrot connoisseur myself and almost all our carrots come up here from California. The bagged ones are usually thickish, about an inch across with some monsters up to 2" wide. The 'fresh' cut ones with tops attached are usually a bit smaller but Ive never seen any really skinny ones in our stores.
Been searching for decades for the ones that taste as good as the ones we used to grow in our own garden back in the day. That sweetness seems to be elusive from the farm factory carrots.
California is a major producer of carrots, it makes sense you'd have good ones.
Most vegetables lose their sweetness the longer it's been since they've been picked or dug up. I'm told that corn that is cooked and eaten within an hour of picking is supposed to be incredible.
I'd love to have a food garden at home, but I don't even have the land for it, let alone the time, patience, or energy.
We tend to want to harvest our food sooner rather than later. It costs money to leave those carrots in the dirt.
Does it, though? Carrots are sold by weight, so if you could simply wait for them to grow to their maximum size, wouldn't that be better than harvesting early and having to replant which also costs money?
I tried growing carrots this summer. It didn’t go well, but I learned a lot.
The one I was able to harvest was short, split (apparently because I started it in a pot), and about 2” in diameter when I finally decided to extract it. I didn’t notice that it tasted any different than a store carrot, but I’m overwintering my next crop because that supposedly makes them taste amazing. There’s no way a factory farm is going to let a crop just sit over the winter when they could pick it and plant something else.