Fun Vegetable Trivia: Carrots
Trivia makes a great icebreaker, doesn't it?It's approachable, simple, and often engaging, especially when it comes as a surprise to your audience. This is why we started the fun fruit and vegetable trivia series, and, with Spring in full swing and Easter fast approaching, it's a perfect time to talk about carrots.
Fun Fact #1: Have you ever heard of Queen Anne's Lace? This popular flower is actually a wild carrot!Fun Fact #2: The first carrots were actually yellow or purple. Orange carrots were not cultivated until much later, but since they were less bitter than their predecessors, they quickly became popular.Fun Fact #3: The heaviest carrot ever recorded weighed over 18 pounds, and the longest carrot ever measured grew to be over 19 feet long.Fun Fact #4: If you eat too many carrots, your skin could turn orange! This condition, called carotenemia, is easy to reverse and shows up mostly on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. Don't worry though, you have to eat a lot of carrots before carotenemia comes into play.Fun Fact #5: According to the Washington State Department of Agriculture, "Americans eat, on average, 10.6 [pounds] of fresh carrots per person per year" (source).
References:
- https://dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/school-nutrition/pdf/fact-sheet-carrot.pdf
- https://healthysd.gov/carrots/
- https://agr.wa.gov/departments/business-and-marketing-support/farm-to-school-toolkit/wa-grown-food-recipe-kit/foodtoolkit/items/vegetables/carrots/facts
- https://cms.agr.wa.gov/WSDAKentico/farm-to-school/Educators_Flyer_Carrots_2.pdf?/Educators_Flyer_Carrots_2
Catch up on all your fun facts with the other installments in our trivia series...
PDF Handout: 5 Fun Facts About Carrots
