Origins

As we said before, carrots got their start between 4 and 5,000 years ago. That was in Afghanistan, in the middle of Central Asia.

They were born into the parsley family of vegetables. Besides parsley, their other close relatives were herbs like dill, fennel, caraway, and coriander.

These early carrots' roots came in many colors. Some were purple; others, red. Still others were yellow, and some even white. But no orange roots. Those didn't come along for thousands of years.

Back then, however, carrots were not grown for their roots, which (as already noted) were scrawny, woody, and bitter. Instead, they were grown for their leaves and seeds. Back then, people used those leaves and seeds as medicine.

Evolution

Over the next several thousand years, carrots spread slowly across northern Africa, eventually making their way into Europe by way of Spain.

Over that period, carrot growers cultivated new strains whose roots became less scrawny and more plump, less woody and more crunchy, less bitter and more sweet.

A result of these changes, people generally came to think of carrots less as an herb and more as a root vegetable.