Well, it turns out that baby carrots are not actually baby forms of carrots! And I thought the lies ended with truffle oil not really being made from truffles (you can refer to an earlier blog of mine). Sigh, but the lies continue. Baby carrots are actually made from a specific breed of carrot (Imperator) that has been specifically bred to grow and ripen more quickly. But because of this quick maturation, it has less beta carotene than most carrots, and so less nutritious. The carrots are cut into 2 inch pieces, and then forced down these water filled pipes, into a cement mixer like peeler and come out as the uniformly shaped baby carrots we've come to munch on.
I actually quit using baby carrots about a year ago (I think that's how my using baby carrots came up with my friend. I was telling him how I'd quit that habit...). I was getting ready to make Xmas dinner last year and was at the Farmer's Market. I figured I'd just get most of my produce from the market and try to be all organic and stuff, hoping the freshness would cover any serious blunders I might make while cooking. At home, I start peeling my carrots and am hit with the aroma of carrot. As I start chopping, I pop a couple of pieces in my mouth and am amazed. THIS is what a carrot is supposed to taste like. I had forotten how carrot-y a carrot could taste, and from that day forward, I have tried to stick only to real carrots, not these genetically bred carrots.
For more info on how baby carrots came to be: http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2004-08-11-baby-carrot_x.htm
Now, baby corn, on the other hand, it really is baby corn! Eh, ok, I'm not as excited about this, mostly because I don't like baby corn to begin with, which is weird since I love corn. Basically, baby corn are immature cobs of sweet corn. They're picked when the ears start to show the bits of the corn silks, and when that happens, you have up to 5 days to harvest the baby corn.
For more info on baby corn: http://ask.yahoo.com/20030203.html
