{Looking for the Cocky Carrot Cocktail recipe? You’ll find it at the bottom of this post.}
A (Carrot) Museum Visit
By Catherine Shannon Ballman
Said Paul Cezanne, “The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution.”
Here’s your chance to get that new take on the Daucus carota while doing a bit of armchair travel – check out The World Carrot Museum, a virtual repository of all things carrot. The mission statement notes that the online museum is “… entirely devoted to the history, evolution, science, sociology, and art of carrots . . . to educate, inform and amuse visitors through the discovery, collection, preservation, interpretation, and exhibition of objects relating to the carrot.”
And what a trove of information about this sometimes afterthought of a vegetable it is.
World Carrot Museum Highlights
- An art gallery showcases illuminations by scribes in early books, paintings, and sculpture inspired by carrots (or, at least that incorporate carrots into the work).
- Like all serious museums, visitors are disabused of popular myths. For instance, the Dutch did not develop the orange cultivar in honor of their royal family, the House of Orange.
- Tons of recipes round out The World Carrot Museum site. A favorite source is the first known Islamic cookbook, The Book of Cookery: Preparing Salubrious Foods and Delectable Dishes, Extracted from Medical Books and Told by Proficient Cooks and the Wise, thought to have been written around 950.
- Tracing the evolution of the carrot cake from medieval times to modern day is engrossing. The visitor is provided with hyperlinks to cookbooks, articles and the little-known but tasty Food Timeline.
What you have here is a solid piece of culinary history, enriched by one man’s passion for the carrot. This passion is shared globally at carrot festivals. From Tasmania to France to California, people celebrate the sturdy taproot with annual harvest parties and fairs.
Feeling peckish from your carrot immersion? Perk up with a carrot drink, not health-ridden but a lot more fun than a smoothie.
Cocky Carrot Cocktail
Cocky Carrot Cocktail1 1/2 oz vodka
1 1/2 oz Orange Liqueur, such as Triple Sec
1 oz carrot juice
1 oz citrus energy drink
Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker and stir. Strain over ice into a collins glass. Garnish with an orange slice, and serve.
Probably best paired with carrot greens pesto.
