Afghan Purple

If you google 'afghan purple', you will learn much more about cannabis (marijuana) than you do about carrots.

I had to add 'carrots' to my search in order to find what I was looking for.

Once upon a time, all carrots were purple; in the late 16th century, Dutch growers took mutant strains of the purple carrot and gradually developed them into the sweet, plump, orange variety we have today. The popularity of the orange carrot in the Netherlands has been linked (apparently without any real evidence) to support for the House of Orange and the struggle for Dutch independence.

Amazon lists the Afghan purple as a "superfood". Surprisingly, there are no customer reviews. eBay concurs with Amazon's description however, informing us that "this amazing purple carrot ... has been grown [in Afghanistan] for over 1000 years. Scientists have recently found that purple carrots are packed with antioxidants at levels much higher than in orange carrots. They were also found to contain high levels of anthocyanins, which give the purple colour, now known to reduce the risk of heart disease and cancers and lower cholseterol."

In 2007, the Telegraph named the Afghan Purple carrot as one of the "oddities" that Garden Organic had included in its heritage seed library. (Garden Organic "aims to conserve and make available varieties that are disappearing", according to the Telegraph, and is "dedicated to researching and promoting organic gardening".) The Telegraph went on to report that "The Afghan purple carrot was donated by a UN project manager in Kabul. It is believed that cultivated carrots originated in the country."

Other varieties listed in Garden Organic's library include Red elephant carrot, Shetland cabbage, Walla Walla sweet onion, Giant tree tomato, Macedonian sweet pepper, Crimson giant radish, Salford black runner bean, Boothby's blond cucumber, Colossal leek, and Loos tennis ball lettuce.