Lookin' at Oregon Through the Windshield with Sissy

Know where carrots come from?

Leaving Madras, heading south on U.S. 97, I was looking out the window at a field of hybrid carrot seed. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I thought I knew most things but I didn’t know that Central Oregon was a big carrot seed player – they grow 85% of the nations carrot seed and 40% of the world’s carrot seed.

Expensive to grow too – nearly $1200 an acre because they have to grow the male and female carrots side by side to get them to pollinate and that means it takes up a lot of ground with less yield. See the photo? Three rows of male plants to five rows of female (don’t ask me how you tell the difference ‘cause I don’t know).

We don’t see a field of carrot seeds in the Willamette Valley because we have the wild carrot called Queen Anne’s Lace and it cross pollinates.

What happens next? They harvest in September, send the seed to California, California grows the carrots and then sends them back. Who would have thought? Not me, that’s for sure.

You can find out more at www.oregonstate.edu/dept/coarc/crops/vegetable_seed