Daucus carota
Long Blood Red Carrot, improved blood-red carrot: this 19th-century heirloom variety has a rare quality among colored carrots — its deep reddish-orange flesh retains its color after cooking, whereas most purple varieties fade in the pot. Sufficient reason for it to have made a comeback in chefs' kitchens.
Characteristics:
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Persistent color: purplish-red skin and deep reddish-orange flesh that withstands cooking.
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Highly aromatic flavor: more intense and sweeter than that of classic carrots.
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Long, tapered root: approximately 20 cm, steadily narrowing to a blunt tip — this is truly a long carrot, and it requires deep soil.
- Reproducible heirloom variety.
Sowing advice:
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Exposure: sunny.
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Soil: loose, light, deep, and free of stones — its 20 cm root must be able to grow straight down, even more so than the Nantes, which is a half-long variety. In heavy or stony soil, grow it on a mound or in a deeply loosened bed. Avoid fresh manure, which causes the roots to fork.
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Method: for early carrots, sow from mid-February to the end of March under cover or in a cold frame. For summer harvests and storage carrots, sow from early May to the end of June. Always sow in place, in 1 cm-deep furrows: carrots do not transplant well. See how to sow your seeds.
Care advice:
- Thin to 5 cm apart, preferably in the evening, immediately removing the waste, whose smell attracts carrot flies.
- Water regularly and evenly to prevent the roots from splitting.
Harvest advice:
- Harvest as needed. Autumn carrots can be stored throughout the winter in a sand clamp, in a cool place.
Beneficial associations:
Benefits for biodiversity:
- Let one plant go to seed in its second year: its large white umbels attract hoverflies in large numbers, whose larvae devour aphids.
- Like all umbellifers, it is a host plant for swallowtail caterpillars.
Uses:
- Its ability to retain its color when cooked makes it a visual asset: roasted, in a velvety soup, or mashed, it keeps its spectacular color. Excellent raw, grated into a salad.
Harvesting your own seeds:
Leave a few roots in the ground over winter: they will go to seed in their second year. Harvest the umbels when they turn brown and close up like a bird's nest. Beware of crosses with wild carrots and other varieties. See saving your seeds.
Commitment to Quality: at SemiSauvage - Permaculture, we grow and select our seeds with respect for all living things as our guiding principle. Based near the Auvergne volcanoes, we choose reproducible, non-hybrid varieties, tested for their germination rate, sorted, and carefully packaged, without any chemical treatment. Our conviction: to restore gardeners' ability to resow, year after year, seeds that truly belong to them.
An heirloom carrot that keeps its color all the way to the plate.
