carrots | Ask Dr. Universe | Washington State University

Why do carrots have sugar? They are so yummy! – George and Samuel, 6, Virginia

October 23, 2025 melissamayer

Dear George and Samuel,

Roasted and soft. Raw and crunchy. Baked into a cake. I love eating all kinds of carrots.

I asked my friend Tim Waters why those orange veggies are so tasty. He studies vegetable crops at Washington State University.

He told me that we eat the carrot plant’s root. That’s where the plant stores all the sugar it makes during photosynthesis.

“The sugars that carrots have are sucrose, glucose and fructose,” Waters said. “They’re stored in the root as a source of energy for the plant while it’s growing.”

It turns out carrots are biennial plants. It takes two years … » More …

Why are carrots orange? - Caden, 11, N.C.

April 17, 2020 jaime.chambers

Dear Caden,

When you picture the carrot section at a grocery store in the United States, you probably imagine rows of orange. But carrots can come in a rainbow of other colors: purple, yellow, red, and more.

And the first carrots weren’t orange at all. They were stark white.

That’s what I learned from Tim Waters, a Vegetable Specialist at Washington State University-Extension. He studies how to grow different kinds of vegetables, and helps others learn how to grow them too.