Lending A Helping Hand

Antique Auto Club Makes Donation To Lccc Scholarship Fund

It&rsquo;s hip to eat baby carrots, but not all varieties are the same. Thanks to the folks at the World Carrot Museum ( www.carrotmuseum.com), we can quiz you on the reasons why.

1. There are two types of baby carrots, the museum says: &ldquo;true&rdquo; and &ldquo;manufactured.&rdquo; What defines a &ldquo;true&rdquo; baby carrot?
a) They are harvested much earlier than normal-size carrots and have a telltale &ldquo;shoulder.&rdquo; 
b) The seeds used to grow the carrots are first chemically treated to shrink sprouting capacity.
c) They are planted in non-enriched soil and are given a minimum amount of hydration during growing.

2. How are &ldquo;manufactured&rdquo; baby carrots processed?
a) Standard carrots are put in an industrial shredder and reduced to pulp. Then poured into individual cylinders and molded by heat.
b) Farmers use an industrial green bean cutter, shaping the carrots into 5-centimeter lengths. Then the carrots are placed into an industrial potato peeler to be shaped.
c) Scientists, using hybrid gene splicing, have genetically bred a tubular carrot that grows sans skin.

3. Who was the so-called &ldquo;inventor&rdquo; of baby carrots?
a) Aaron (&ldquo;Shorty&rdquo;) Wagner, a farmer in Germany.
b) Dr. Horace Wheelwright, a horticulturist in Sweden.
c) Mike Yurosek, a farmer in Newhall, Calif.

4. What was the motivation for the invention of baby carrots in the 1980s?
a) The inventor&rsquo;s children found full-size carrots too difficult to hold.
b) The inventor was tired of throwing out 400 tons of carrots a day because they were aesthetically undesirable. 
c) The inventor, a toy train enthusiast, wanted to stack the miniaturized carrots on his railroad cars. to 

5. True or false: Manufactured baby carrots are not as nutritious as full whole carrots.
ANSWERS: 1: a; 2: b; 3: c; 4: b; 5: true (but a peeled full-size carrot is virtually the same).
&ndash; From AP wire service