Multicolored varieties of beets and carrots

Beetroot and carrot shades - everyone understands what red and orange tones are hidden behind these names.

But in real life, the palette of colors of the roots themselves is much richer.

We are so accustomed to the appearance of these vegetables that today we can hardly imagine that, for example, carrots initially did not have their cheerful orange color.

Her roots were white, yellow, red, purple, even black, but not orange. A color revolution happened with a root crop in the Netherlands in the 16th century. and the cause of it remained unknown: either a mutation, or accidental pollination, or a breeding job of Dutch vegetable growers who crossed a red carrot with yellow.

And since the event coincided with the victory of the Dutch in their struggle for independence under the leadership of Prince Wilhelm of Orange (Orange in our opinion) and this color became public, orange carrots, which appeared just in time, began to enjoy special success.

However, its rapid spread and displacement of other colored varieties is due more to the patriotic feelings of the Dutch, but to the fact that the orange carrot was much more sweet and juicy than its ancestors. Further selection was already in the direction of the shape (spindle-shaped, cylindrical, shortened, almost spherical), and not color, so the multi-colored carrot in Europe was forgotten for several centuries, but in Asia and Africa yellow, purple, red, white carrots are still were grown.

Culinary etudes in crimson tones - perhaps, this is how you can characterize dishes in which "participates" beetroot. It is dark maroon saturated color makes this root absolutely indispensable ingredient of such classic dishes as borsch, vinaigrette and herring under the fur coat.

But he also limits the use of this extremely useful (you might say, medicinal) root crop in cooking. Still, this color is too dramatic and intense to constantly be present on our table. In addition, as is known, beet stains and all other products that are with it in one plate.

However, who said that beets must be exclusively beet-colored? There are varieties with other shades of red, with yellow or orange root crops, white and even striped - bright red rings interspersed with white. However, while all these varieties and varieties practically do not occur on our vegetable shelves, but if desired they can be grown on their own, and in fact it is much more interesting.

What determines the color of carrots, beets and other vegetables

Today even schoolchildren know that for the coloring of vegetables and fruits meet the plant pigments. For example, the orange color of root crops indicates the presence in them of carotene, or provitamin A.

In orange carrots, its content is particularly high, so it is so beautiful, tasty and useful. The yellow color is given to the plants by the pigment lutein, violet, blue, red, black - anthocyan, bright red - lycopene, burgundy - betaine.

These biochemical terms have long been heard by the advocates of healthy eating. After all, in addition to coloring the fruits, plant pigments perform many other functions.

For example, variously and beneficially affect our body: strengthen the immune system and blood vessels, improve vision, work as antioxidants, protect against harmful effects of ultraviolet and the environment.

A bright, attractive color of the fruit, as it were, signals: pay attention to me, eat me. And consequently, the more diverse and brighter the color palette of vegetables and fruits that we grow in our gardens and orchards, the richer, tastier and more useful our table, not to mention the beauty of the dishes.

For a long time, the activity of plant breeders was mainly aimed at breeding varieties of vegetables and fruits for industrial cultivation, the main qualities of which are commercial appearance, keeping quality and good transportability. But recently - with the development of ideas of organic farming and healthy nutrition - many turned to old forgotten varieties and species, deducing on their basis new hybrids.

Thanks to this, very interesting and diverse varieties of vegetables began to appear, in which besides the original color there is also a high content of vitamins, trace elements and other useful substances.

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See also: Growing carrots - planting, care and varieties

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So at the turn of the century in the UK, a variety of purple carrots was introduced, which in addition to the increased content of beta-carotene is rich in anthocyanin, a substance known as an antioxidant and capable of suppressing viruses. True, the purple carrot has one significant drawback, which, apparently, once caused the European housewives to abandon its cultivation: in a cleaned form, it stains everything it comes into contact with, and when cooking it sheds.

But, knowing about its benefits, this can somehow be reconciled or used this is its quality for staining salads and other cold dishes (for example, sauerkraut with a purple carrot acquires a pleasant pink color). But the varieties of red, yellow and white carrots color is absolutely stable, and such root crops are able to turn the most common dish (for example, vegetable soup or garnish) into a very beautiful and appetizing.

Beetroot is a vegetable that has a very rich and diverse set of pigments. Their number and composition make it possible to vary the colors and shades of both the root and its leaves. Therefore, today, on the sites of well-known seed producers, we can see a wide enough warm spectrum of colors of various beet varieties - from traditional burgundy to golden and white, and also iridescent and changing their color as they mature, from white to red.

External decorativeness is also important, so the garden bed with different beet varieties looks elegant due to the multi-colored petioles and leaves, which can be eaten fresh and cooked. Another trend of breeders of the twenty-first century is the breeding of summer varieties of this crop.

Their dignity in precocity, a small amount of root, which does not need to be cooked for a long time (long heat treatment destroys many useful substances of beets), with a rather tender pulp, which can be used even raw.

In addition, all other colors and shades of beets (except beetroot) do not stain the food, so in the kitchen this wonderful and very useful root can be used much more widely and diversely, and therefore more often. Important: they grow all these varieties of root crops in the same way as traditional ones.

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Reference by topic: Cultivation and cleaning of beets

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Unusual beet cultivars

Albina Vereduna — white Root crop with beautiful curved and wavy leaves with a high content of vitamins.

Boldor — with yellow pulp and orange the skin. Yellow stems contrast with bright green leaves. The roots are delicious, sweet, young leaves can be eaten raw, cooked steamed or fried.

The Golden Globe - early-ripening variety with perfectly aligned root crops 5-6 cm in diameter. Yellow the flesh is sweet and tender. Well stored without loss of taste. The leaves are used for salad.

Golden Detroit - a variety of Detroit with golden Flesh retained during cooking, and excellent taste. Adult root crops do not become fibrous and do not lose juice when damaged. Leaves can be harvested throughout the season and used as spinach. Since the Ort is resistant to arming and well stored.

Burpees Golden — Orange root, very juicy and delicious. Sow often, because it has not very high germination.

Kestrel F1 - a hybrid with a good resistance to rifling. Under the red skin of the pulp dark-skinned colors with increased sugar levels and a sweeter aroma. The variety is delicious and cooked and raw.

Chioggia - a bright round root crop with orange-pink peeled, with shiny dark green leaves and ruby ​​red stems. Root crop - an attractive "apple" of red and white rings, when cooking it becomes pale pink. Sweet, delicate and juicy.

Bulls Blood Scarletta - a bright variety with dark burgundy-violet leaves, stems and skin. Inside, the root crop has cherry and pink concentric rings.

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Reference by topic:  Beet for the winter (podzimnius sowing)

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Unusual varieties of carrots

Atomic Red - A unique coral color is obtained due to the high content of lycopene. When cooking, it remains as beautiful.

Purple Haze F1 - purple outside and orange inside. It is best to eat fresh, as it loses color when cooked.

Cosmic Purple - one of the popular varieties in the line of colored carrots, bright purple outside and orange inside. Very early.

Purple Sun F1 - bright violet color right up to the core. Excellent taste. A high level of antioxidants makes these roots ideal for juice. Resistant to diseases.

White Satin F1 - snow-white roots with an exquisite smooth texture and crispy, sweet, juicy pulp. One of the best white varieties.

Lunar White - fruits almost white, up to 30 cm in length, very delicate and tasty.

Solar Yellow - bright-yellow variety of carrots. Root crops of length 16-19 cm, very juicy and crunchy.

Yellowstone - has an unusual canary Colour. Tasty and in raw, and boiled fried

Rainbow F1 - name of the hybrid Rainbow speaks for itself. Here a whole range of shades: from yellow and cream to orange.

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Beetroot is probably not the most popular vegetable in garden beds. Indeed, why bother with its cultivation and storage, if it is always in the store, it is inexpensive, and is it really necessary: ​​even with a great love for borscht, vinaigrette and herring under a fur coat, we do not prepare these dishes every day.

Meanwhile, the choice of varieties of beet is increasing, and the seeds of varieties of foreign selection are becoming more and more accessible. And they are not only familiar to us beet color. The fact is that this vegetable has a rich and varied composition of plant pigments, which allows you to vary the colors and shades of the root crop - from the traditionally burgundy and dark cherry to yellow and completely white, as well as with white rings inside and even change their color as they mature - from white to red. Beetroot is diverse and beautiful, not only the roots, but also the tops - cuttings and leaves - so the garden with multicolored varieties

looks very elegant. True, domestic breeders improve mainly the taste and yield of the usual burgundy beets, but among foreign varieties more and more multicolored. Although it is difficult to call them novelties, the history of the emergence of some varieties is lost in the centuries, but in our seed market they only began to appear and are still quite rare, and sometimes there is a confusion with the names.

On sale most often you can find seeds of varieties with yellow roots called 'Golden Ball' or 'Golden Globe'. But they are not registered in the State Register, their origin is unclear, so we can assume that these are simply renamed imports.

One of the oldest and most popular American yellow beet varieties is' Burpee's Golden. It was not called "gold" by chance, the bright flesh of the root crop literally glows, and the taste is very pleasant. The weak side of the variety is low germination of seeds, therefore it is recommended to sow them more often. Beautiful and sort ofBokior'- with yellow pulp and orange-colored skin. Bright green leaves with yellow streaks and on yellow petioles also look pretty nice.

Germination of seeds of this variety is higher, the roots are more aligned in size. The flesh is also tasty, sweet. The leaves and petioles of these varieties of beets can be eaten raw in salads, or, like spinach, steamed, boiled, or fried. By the way, this also applies to the varieties 'Golden Surprise' (we sell under the name 'Golden Surprise') and 'Golden Detroit'.

One of the most popular foreign varieties of white beet is 'Albina Vereduna' (sometimes sold under the names 'Albino' 'Albino White' or 'Snowhite'). In addition to the sweet root, he still has beautiful wavy leaves that contain a lot of vitamins and minerals, so they are also used as food.

Of course, all these varieties are not suitable for borscht and beetroot (after all, color is important in these dishes), but they will enrich any soup, mashed potatoes, vegetable stews with their pleasant mild flavor, and will be suitable as a side dish for poultry and fish. And diversify the diet, especially vegetarians and raw foodists, because young small root vegetables can be eaten fresh in salads.

BTW

One of the big pluses of white and yellow beets, which every housewife will appreciate, is that these root crops do not stain hands during cooking and do not leave spots.

KIND OF ITALY

Perhaps the most unusual variety of beetroot - 'Chioggia'.

Its bright, round root vegetable has an orange-red skin and shiny dark green leaves with ruby-red cuttings.

And under the skin - almost white flesh with thin red rings. But as they grow, the red rings expand and the white ones narrow. In boiled form, the entire root crop becomes pale pink. Appearance also corresponds to the taste - tender, juicy, sweet. Boiled and raw, sliced ​​across the circles or along the hearts, such beets will decorate any dish.

This beetroot got its name from the Italian city of Chioggia, located on the islands of the Venetian lagoon (as, by the way, a wonderful pumpkin variety with the same name). But with the translation of the name in Russian this variety was not lucky. We sell its seeds not only under the original name 'Chioggia', but also under the "translated" in different ways: 'Chioggia', 'Chioggia', 'Chioggia'.

Sometimes you can find a seed set called “Rainbow Beet”, which usually includes one traditional red variety, one yellow, white and striped 'Chioggia'. Probably, it is convenient for those who want, without taking up much space on the beds, to get acquainted at once with all the colored beets. These varieties are grown in the same way as normal ones.

Their advantages are in the early maturity and small volume of the root crop, which can be quickly prepared (a long heat treatment destroys many useful substances of beets), and with fairly tender flesh, it can even be eaten raw.

© Author O. Uvarov

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BEETS: ROUND-FACED GIRL IN THE DARK

It seems: what is unusual in the usual beetroot dining room? But if you look closely, you can beetroot and admire, and admire - in general, the next vegetable contender for a beautiful flower bed!

Beets belong to the haze family (or quinoa). Its closest relatives are also vegetable - spinach, chard, garden quinoa and quinoa.

It is believed that this vegetable was imported from Byzantium. In any case, beets have long been grown on Slavic lands and are highly valued.

BORN FROM THE MEDITERRANEAN

Homeland beets - the Mediterranean. Mention of it is found in the writings of Theophrastus (III century. BC). True, initially its leaf form was domesticated - chard. About chard (leaf beets) - a separate story. Until recently, yeah, the culture was considered rare and cultivated except out of curiosity. Perhaps we’ll talk about it separately next time. She deserves it.

THE STRAWLAY WAY But back to the beets of the dining room. Her path to our table is thorny and full of bitter events. Initially, beet leaves were used as a medicine. When the number of wild specimens began to decrease, and the cities moved farther from the coast, the beets were transferred to the monastery gardens. But there was still an opinion that beet leaves were only a cure.

The taste of beets and vegetables was appreciated by the ancient Romans. A delicacy was considered a dish of leaves soaked in wine with the addition of pepper. The greater the power of the Romans, the more they planted their culture with the barbarians. This concerned completely different areas, including crop production.

One of the plants that the Romans forcibly forced to breed in their lands was beets. Especially favorable were the floodplain lands of the Rhine. So beets safely relocated to Germany.

The next wave of beetroot invasion occurred in the Middle Ages. True, in the XII-XIII centuries in central Europe they preferred the root yellow beet. The Crusaders were the following who had a hand in the distribution of this vegetable throughout Europe.

TIP: A great advantage of beets is the possibility of widespread cultivation from subtropics to northern latitudes.

Its root crops are relatively well stored and can withstand even prolonged storage without loss of taste and marketability. Beets are also fruitful and healthy.

More or less peacefully beets appeared in our country. For example, in the X-XI centuries. in Kievan Rus, beets were already an ordinary garden plant, that is, not at all a delicacy or a rarity.

In the XVII-XVIII centuries. sugar and fodder beets are introduced into the culture for the first time. And immediately begins the breeding work. The modern part of the history of beets is as follows: the direction of selection of the last decades is the cultivation of the so-called baby varieties or summer varieties with a short growing season. The goal is to reduce the growing season and replace huge root crops with small ones with excellent taste and keeping quality.

MULTI-COLORED BEET VARIETIES

We are used to thinking that the red color of the root crop is in table varieties. For example, the varieties 'Borshcheva Don' or 'Borshcheva Diva' with red pulp of the root crop and typical light rings - for the rich color of borsch and vinaigrette.

White beets in our view - for sugar; and the big yellow - to feed livestock. The modern world of selection changes our view and mixes the familiar.

Even 200 years ago, yellow-fruit varieties were grown on a par with red-beetroots, the beets we were used to. Folk selection did a good job with beets, but the special scientific work of genetic breeders achieved even stunning results. Now we can enjoy beetroot (in addition to chard) and root. The color of the root crop is burgundy, cherry, golden, white, striped or changing from white to rich red as it ripens. With differently colored leaf petioles - and the leaves themselves.

CULTURE-SURPRISE

Beetroot is a surprise culture. It can be for table use (perhaps the most familiar to us), feed, technical and decorative. Decorativeness is largely determined by the vegetative sphere: rosette of leaves (semi-erect or erect), leaf shape, color intensity of the leaf plate (from the outside and inside), veins and petiole, as well as the degree of blistering of the leaf and the waviness of the edge.

Well? In my opinion, after such a variety, it can be said that beets are an excellent contender for a bright flower bed.

YELLOW ROOT PAINT

Burpee's Golden ', the oldest yellow-fruited variety; 'Golden Globe' and 'Golden Ball' 'Boldor' - orange on top and with golden flesh; 'Golden Detroit'.

WHITE ROOT PAINT

Albina Vereduna (Albino, Albino White, Snowhite) - with a white root crop, leaves no residue on hands and clothes. Edible and leaves, wavy and highly decorative; Cylindrical is a cylindrical root vegetable yellow on the outside and white inside.

TIP: A great advantage of beets is the possibility of widespread cultivation from subtropics to northern latitudes.

Its root crops are relatively well stored and can withstand even prolonged storage without loss of taste and marketability. Beets are also fruitful and healthy.

© Author: Ksenia Kruglova

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