# My Carrots are NOT Nubbins! :( **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 2, 2002, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-carrots-are-not-nubbins/122071 "2002-08-02T20:08:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![LolaCocaCola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@LolaCocaCola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaCocaCola)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-carrots-are-not-nubbins/122071/1 "2002-08-02T20:08:00Z")
Someone here once mentioned that the baby carrots I like to dip in Ranch dressing and happily munch on are nothing more than big carrots sharpened down to little carrot nubbins, and that they were not baby carrots at all. :mad: I have not been able to eat my baby carrots in peace ever since that disturbing comment, as I keep staring at each carrot with every bite wondering if it really is a baby carrot imposter. ☹ The bag that I buy my baby carrots in is clearly marked as: **Classic Cut and Peeled Baby Carrots** Now unless this company is blatantly LYING through their teeth, I choose to believe that my carrot “nubbins” are really in fact BABY CARROTS. Thank yew. _crunch_ ---
**Author:** ![Ferrous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Ferrous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferrous)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-carrots-are-not-nubbins/122071/2 "2002-08-02T20:11:43Z")
Hmm…for some reason, I thought this was going to be about something else. So “carrots” isn’t a euphemism, then? Right, carry on. ---
**Author:** ![Ferrous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Ferrous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferrous)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-carrots-are-not-nubbins/122071/3 "2002-08-02T20:18:52Z")
Aw, hell. I guess I might as well make some actual contribution, while I’m here… [Baby Carrots](http://www.grimmway.com/baby.htm) > [@](#): > > Baby carrots are not grown bite-size. Quite the contrary. They are bred to be long and slender and then are cut into pieces and lathed to uniform width. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-carrots-are-not-nubbins/122071/4 "2002-08-02T20:19:58Z")
Doesn’t it disturb you that you’re eating babies??!? ---
**Author:** ![Geobabe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/geobabe/32/3908_2.png) [@Geobabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geobabe)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-carrots-are-not-nubbins/122071/5 "2002-08-02T20:24:19Z")
I’ve heard that rumor before, and I don’t believe it for a second. Look at the inside of the carrot after you take a bite. There’s a core in the middle, and if it were a big carrot whittled down, the core would be disproportionately large, which, I am quite certain you will find in your baby carrot, it is not. There. ---
**Author:** ![LolaCocaCola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@LolaCocaCola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaCocaCola)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-carrots-are-not-nubbins/122071/6 "2002-08-02T20:24:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dantheman \* > \*\*Doesn’t it disturb you that you’re eating babies??!? \*\* Only baby corn freaks me out. :o ---
**Author:** ![Geobabe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/geobabe/32/3908_2.png) [@Geobabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geobabe)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-carrots-are-not-nubbins/122071/7 "2002-08-02T20:32:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ferrous \* > \*\*Aw, hell. I guess I might as well make some actual contribution, while I’m here… > > ## [Baby Carrots](http://www.grimmway.com/baby.htm) quote: > > ## Baby carrots are not grown bite-size. Quite the contrary. They are bred to be long and slender and then are cut into pieces and lathed to uniform width. > > Sorry. \*\* That’s still not the same as full-size carrot being lathed down to a smaller diameter, which is what some people allege. OK, so they’re skinny carrots cut into shorter lengths. That I can live with. ---
**Author:** ![LolaCocaCola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@LolaCocaCola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaCocaCola)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-carrots-are-not-nubbins/122071/8 "2002-08-02T20:32:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Geobabe \* > \*\*I’ve heard that rumor before, and I don’t believe it for a second. Look at the inside of the carrot after you take a bite. There’s a core in the middle, and if it were a big carrot whittled down, the core would be disproportionately large, which, I am quite certain you will find in your baby carrot, it is not. There. \*\* **Geobabe!** Thank YOU! This is what I’m sayin’! When I take a bite outta the baby carrot, I see little rings inside, kinda like the rings from a tree trunk, but these are carrot rings…and they are little! If it was a carrot nubbin, I would see maybe one ring! Maybe! ---
**Author:** ![scout1222](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@scout1222](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scout1222)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-carrots-are-not-nubbins/122071/9 "2002-08-02T21:12:36Z")
**Lola** , thank you so much. Your carrot (and baby corn) rants are providing me some much needed Rant Comic Relief™ from some of the weightier issues in surrounding threads. Plus, I love the sound of the word “nubbin”. Carry on! :: crunch :: ---
**Author:** ![JonScribe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3be4f8/32.png) [@JonScribe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JonScribe)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-carrots-are-not-nubbins/122071/10 "2002-08-02T21:16:25Z")
I can’t believe I’m bothering with this. Lola, read Ferros’ link again. The carrots are long and slender to start with. Then they are chopped to a two-inch length and the ends are lathed down to round off the ends. They’re not using a saw mill to turn an old-growth carrot into dimensional carrots. Let’s not get into petit peas. ---
**Author:** ![LolaCocaCola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@LolaCocaCola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaCocaCola)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-carrots-are-not-nubbins/122071/11 "2002-08-02T22:08:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JonScribe \* > \*\* > Lola, read Ferros’ link again. The carrots are long and slender to start with. Then they are chopped to a two-inch length and the ends are lathed down to round off the ends. They’re not using a saw mill to turn an old-growth carrot into dimensional carrots. > \*\* Yes, I will buy this. But not that they were big-ass carrots whittled down in a carroty pencil sharpener. ---
**Author:** ![Thylacine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thylacine/32/1143_2.png) [@Thylacine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thylacine)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-carrots-are-not-nubbins/122071/12 "2002-08-03T01:01:27Z")
Ok, I am on the other side of the pacific but each year I grow baby carrots. It is a variety that is suitable for growing in shallow beds and pots. If left to their own devices they get large and woody compared to those seen in the supermrket but nowhere near the size of a traditional carrrot. Perhaps _baby_ is seen as being more PC than _dwarf_ which is closer to the truth? ---
**Author:** ![Myrnalene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Myrnalene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrnalene)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-carrots-are-not-nubbins/122071/13 "2002-08-03T01:23:02Z")
**Lola** , dear, maybe you need to speak to someone about your aversion to full sized carrots. Ask yourself, has my phobia of adult carrots gotten to the point where it interferes with my relationships with other vegetables? Does my insistence on “infantalizing” my snacks stem from some delay in my development resulting from childhood trauma? Don’t be afraid to grow, **Lola**! We all become big carrots some day! :HUGS!: ---
**Author:** ![belladonna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9fc29f/32.png) [@belladonna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/belladonna)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-carrots-are-not-nubbins/122071/14 "2002-08-03T01:34:17Z")
Oh, who’s that chomping on itty-bitty nubs? It’s Lola It’s Lola Who’s all sad over fraudulent grub? It’s Lola Sweet Lola Oh, who’s crying out that it can’t be true? It’s Lola It’s Lola Who’s quite sure that’s just “how they grew”? It’s Lola Silly Lola Who thinks full-size carrots are absolutely vile? It’s Lola It’s Lola Who’d rather eat a nubbin and pretend that it’s a child? It’s Lola Sick, Sick Lola! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-carrots-are-not-nubbins/122071/15 "2002-08-03T01:57:54Z")
As the person who traumatized you with the “Nubbins” comment, I gotta say “Sorry, but face facts.” Yes, there is a breed of carrots called “Baby” carrots, but that’s like saying a wrestler named Baby-Face is, in fact, an infant. Remember the famous Cecil “Grape-Nuts” column where the reader asks if he could market dessicated corn-husks as “Steak”? Same deal. Yes you have “Baby” brand carrots that have been put in a carrot-y pencil sharpener, but they’re hardly immature carrots. At best they’re late-teen carrots. Ever _seen_ a baby carrot? They’re semi-transluscent. Slightly watery. Not very crisp. Fragile as hell. As **Ferrous** said: > [@](#): > > Baby carrots are not grown bite-size. Quite the contrary. They are bred to be long and slender and then are cut into pieces and lathed to uniform width. Bred to be long and skinny. Skinny=narrower rings. They’re still not immature carrots. More [Cites](http://magazines.ivillage.com/goodhousekeeping/diet/nutrition/qas/0,12875,284558_291933,00.html), [cites](http://www.dole5aday.com/FoodService/pdfs/FACTSHEET_Carrots.pdf) and , from a site that _will not_ parse correctly [http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:wl3JO-WFKJYC:www.bouldernews.com/recreation/ecology/25gcol.html+%2B"baby+carrots"&hl=en&ie=UTF-8](http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:wl3JO-WFKJYC:www.bouldernews.com/recreation/ecology/25gcol.html+%2B%22baby+carrots%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8) > [@](#): > > Most baby carrots are not genetically altered to be short and smooth, nor are they plucked from the ground when they’re babies. > > “Wait! We want to keep that mystique going,” said Jerry Alldredge, with the Colorado State University Cooperative Extension Service in Weld County. “It’s like Santa Claus: We can’t have you messing that up.” > > Alldredge reluctantly admitted that most baby carrots are made by chopping up normal-sized carrots and “skinning them down” to baby size with machines. > > Paul Hungenberg, owner of Hungenberg Produce near Greeley, supplies most of the Safeways in the country with baby carrots six months out of the year. He said he plants a thin and long breed of carrots, one that has a very thin “core,” the woody interior of the root. > > Nearly coreless carrots are sweet and tender, he said. > > The Hungenbergs’ veggies are chopped into short lengths and then put through two tumblers, the first with rough grit, the last a polishing one. > > Carrot bits emerge with baby-smooth edges, skinless and sweet (from Cite #2, if you don’t have PDF: > [@](#): > > Baby carrots (a.k.a.mini-peeled carrots) are a type of carotene carrot, but they are not true “baby” carrots. Instead these carrots are grown from “caropak” carrots, a slender variety that grows close together to keep the size small. True baby carrots are simply carrots that have been harvested early to ensure small size. Occasionally, you can find true baby carrots, usually with their tops intact, in supermarkets. The dream is over. Fenris, feeling like he’s stomping on bunnies. ---
**Author:** ![LolaCocaCola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@LolaCocaCola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaCocaCola)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-carrots-are-not-nubbins/122071/16 "2002-08-03T03:16:27Z")
That’s right! **Fenris** was the nubbin-man! :eek: You have no idea what I’ve been through! ☹ Thank you for clearing it up for me ~ I think I can live with the fact that I am devouring skinny, teenage carrots. All is well with the world again. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-carrots-are-not-nubbins/122071/17 "2002-08-03T03:33:17Z")
Now I have this image from some cartoon where a big robotic arm picks up a whole tree, sticks it into a giant pencil sharpener, and pulls out a toothpick, which it then places in a box of toothpicks. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-carrots-are-not-nubbins/122071/18 "2002-08-03T07:29:24Z")
Interesting. Very interesting. Can’t say as I’m surprised though. Here are some fresh baby carrot pictures. [#1](http://www.pallensmith.com/features/highlights98/hd2510d.html) [#2](http://www.seasonalchef.com/bestbuys032302.htm) at the bottom, ewwww looking. (pencil for sizing) [USDA Wisconcin Carrot Trials 2000 - Baby Carrots](http://www.hort.wisc.edu/usdavcru/simon/trial/2000wis_baby_img.html) Tons of pics. I don’t care as long as they weren’t bulbous. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-carrots-are-not-nubbins/122071/19 "2002-08-03T10:00:02Z")
I go to the grocers where the baby carrots come in bunches, with stems at the top and hairy roots threads at the bottom. Obviously they are not shaved down. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-carrots-are-not-nubbins/122071/20 "2002-08-03T10:51:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Muffin \* > \*\*I go to the grocers where the baby carrots come in bunches, with stems at the top and hairy roots threads at the bottom. Obviously they are not shaved down. YMMV. \*\* Exactly. _Those_ are _real_ baby carrots (and yummy they are!) The stuff in the bags are skinny, mutant, teenaged carrots that are pencil-sharpened down to nubbins. But I’m glad **Lola** and I are cool again! I was up at night for fear of having caused her even a soupcon of discomfort! Fenris