Ready to Branch Out When It Comes to Growing Your Favorite Roots?

There's a vast world of carrots out there, far beyond the perfectly smooth orange carrot sticks from the grocery store. Those orange carrots, by the way, weren't even really a thing until the 1500s. The original carrots were likely white, purple, red, and yellow, not orange. The produce section seems pretty set on their orange sticks, but you can grow way more of the rainbow in your garden.

Eating those rainbow carrots is a great way to experience slightly different nutrients and flavors. In addition to fun colors, you can also find carrots to grow in all shapes and sizes—short, stumpy, slender, and extra-long. There's even a variety that can grow as tall as you in the right conditions!

I recommend grabbing several different carrot seed packets so that you can find your favorite.

My Favorite Carrot Varieties to Grow at Home

Here are some of my favorite types of carrots to grow in the kitchen garden:

• Scarlet Nantes
• Little Finger Carrots
• Danvers Carrots
• St. Valery Carrots
• Chantenay Carrots

You can find all these varieties online from reputable seed companies like Baker Creek, Botanical Interests, Johnny's Selected Seeds, High Mowing Seeds, and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. If you can, though, I recommend shopping for carrot seeds at your local nursery or farmers' market. That way, you know the carrot types you're bringing home will be well-suited to your specific climate.

In my experience, carrots always seem to take longer to grow than I expected. So if your cool season is short, look for varieties that mature quickly (in under 70 days).

Nantes Carrots Are the Best Carrot Variety to Grow in Heavy Soil

Nantes are a super popular carrot variety to grow. They have bright orange roots that reach about 6 to 7 inches in length and end in a blunt tip. Thanks to this blunt tip, this variety is recommended for heavy or rocky soil that the delicate little points of other varieties might not be able to break into.

Nantes carrots are not in a rush. They take about 75 days to reach maturity if the growing conditions have been ideal.

If you're looking to add some color to your garden harvests, try Scarlet Nantes, a favorite out of France. These little gals are sweet and tender. They have beta-carotene, just like "normal" carrots, but they also have lycopene, which is incredibly important for our bodies and has been linked to potential health benefits like reducing the risk of certain cancers and cardiovascular disease.

Little Finger Carrots Are the Best Carrots to Grow for Snacking

Little Finger Carrots are a type of baby Nantes. They grow fairly quick for carrots (their time to harvest is just 55 days), which is ideal if you have a short amount of time before your weather is about to warm up in the spring.

At just 3 inches long, Little fingers look like stumpy orange roots when harvested, but they taste so sweet. They're my favorite for eating raw as a snack, especially when they're harvested a little smaller—that's when they're tender but crisp. I just toss some in a baggie for on-the-go snacks for my kids. If you're into canning or pickling, this is a great variety for that, as well. In fact, that's what they were originally bred for.

Thanks to their short stature, Little Finger Carrots are the perfect variety to grow in containers.

I highly recommend growing this type if you've got little kids who like the "baby" carrots at the store (which are disappointingly just shaved down regular-size carrots).

Danvers Carrots Are the Best Carrots to Grow for Juicing

I love Danvers Carrots. They're always super reliable for me in my kitchen garden. I grow Danvers Carrots every spring and fall to make homemade carrot juice. Danvers grow nice and plump, perfect for juicing. They're also pretty sweet, so they make a really refreshing and tasty (not to mention healthy) alternative to juice from the store or sugary soda.

Danvers carrots are deep orange and grow to be about 6 to 8 inches long. Unlike Nantes Carrots, Danvers taper to a point, a more classic carrot shape. They need about 65 to 70 days to reach maturity.

St. Valery Carrots Are the Best Type to Grow If You Want a "Normal" Carrot

St. Valery Carrots are the closest variety you can grow at home and end up with something that looks like what you'll find in the produce section of the grocery store. This is another great variety for juicing. Their flavor is a little more earthy, with a hint of ginger.

These orange carrot roots grow as long as 12 inches, so you'll need a raised bed at least 18 inches deep to give them plenty of room to dig down deep. They'll also need a good 70 days to grow that nice, long root for you.

Chantenay Carrots Are the Cutest Little Carrot Variety

You won't find curves like these at the grocery store. Chantenay Carrots really plump up, growing almost as wide as they do long. Their roots are nice and juicy, great for juicing or eating fresh in a salad. Their flavor is deliciously sweet with some floral notes.

Of course, it does take time to produce a figure as curvaceous as this. Good things come to those who wait and wonder what's happening underground. You'll need to leave these ladies in the ground for a full 75 days before they're ready to burst forth and be enjoyed.

Some Other Noteworthy Carrot Varieties

• Amarillo carrots produce lemon-yellow roots that are super crunchy and have a slight grassy flavor.
• Pusa Asita Black Carrots grow a gorgeous shade of dark purple, and they maintain that color even when cooked. Be warned though: Your hands and anything else that come in contact with these purple roots will soon be purple too, and that includes other foods and cooking utensils.
• Manpukuji Carrots are a ridiculously long carrot variety from Japan. Roots can grow 2 to 6 feet (that's feet, people!) long. I was super excited to grow this type in my garden; unfortunately, I didn't have much success. (Trust me, if ever I manage to grow carrots that are taller than me, you will be seeing pictures of it!)

Remember, the Tastiest Carrot of All Is One Harvested at the Right Time

You can harvest carrots as soon as they've reached a size you're happy with. A good rule of thumb for harvesting any of your root crops is to go ahead and pull them when they're still a little smaller than their grocery store counterparts. That's when they're at their tastiest.

From there, you have a lot of wiggle room in your harvest time... until you reach about 4 weeks after the carrots have fully matured. Carrots left in the ground too long become tough and woody, instead of crunchy and crisp. They'll start to develop side roots, and their flesh might also crack, which means you won't be able to store them.

So stay within your window of opportunity for harvesting. We're here to grow some tasty little roots, not win a contest at the state fair, right?

Time to Order Some Carrot Seeds!

Pick a couple carrot varieties to get started and place your seed order like yesterday before they run out. Some of you can even start planting carrot seeds this month if your soil is workable because these little root crops can handle some frost. (Find all our tips and tricks for growing the most delicious organic carrots in your garden.)

Again, whichever type you pick, the ones you pull from your soil are never going to look quite like the ones from the store. Your little root harvest might have some bumps and stretch marks, maybe even some little white hairs! (Before you say "gross", they're actually just tiny roots.) If your carrots encounter an obstacle underground like a rock or soil clump or root, they might fork into two points or become a bit deformed. But no matter what they look like, you'll think they're the most beautiful carrots you've ever seen.

Because you grew them yourself.

Thanks for being here and helping to make gardening ordinary again!