Limp Carrots

[Marmora Man]

I bought a bunch of fresh carrots with all their green tops. Stored them in a veg box in a cool, but not cold, utility room. A day later the tops were limp and horrid - while the carrots were turning black and were as limp as the green tops.

What am I doing wrong? I don't like to store veg in the fridge.

[red devil]

Sounds like they have dried out, which they are prone to do...not all veg benefit from being kept in a fridge, but carrots seem to.

Soak them in ice cold water and they might come back to life. I would also cut the tops down to a couple of inches as they can draw the moisture out of the main carrot.

Carrots can also react to other fruit/veg, got this from the web...

Look for firm, smooth, well-shaped carrots with a bright orange colour and a fresh appearance. Carrots with their green frilly tops still attached indicate your freshest choice, but if you're buying the ones in a plastic bag, look them over well as some of these bags may have been stored for months. A good wash and scrub should be fine for organically grown carrots, but all other carrots should be peeled before eating to get rid of any pesticide residue. To preserve their flavour and texture, carrots should be stored in your fridge vegetable drawer in their original plastic bag, fronds removed (preventing them from drawing moisture away from the root). Don't store carrots together with apples, pears or other fruits that produce ethylene gas as they ripen, as this gas will turn carrots bitter. And if your carrots go limp, rejuvenate them in ice water.

[Gidget]

I would always remove the entire green top once bought. And yes, you should store them in the veg. drawer without fruit. Same with celery. I do not keep tomatoes in the fridge though.

[Annette Curtain]

Where did you buy them ?

Take them back maybe

:-S

[ianr]

I don't think the going black or limp necessarily detract much from their quality, once peeled, at least if eaten raw. In fact, they can be even sweeter.

What gets me is the soak-washing of carrots, so much that they absorb lots of water and lose any crisp, sweet nutty flavour that they might once have had. That's compounded by the fact that they're then sold by supermarkets in sealed plastic bags. Even opening them immediately, in the hope that they'll dry out, doesn't always stop the rot setting in.

[wee quinnie]

Did you have them in a paper bag? Surprisingly I have found that carrots seem to keep better in a plastic bag.