Carrots are a wonderful versatile vegetable. It is a root vegetable called a taproot. They are crisp when fresh and should snap easily, if they are flexible without breaking they are old. Carrots have more sugar than all other vegetables except beet so are a great snack, are an excellent source of beta carotene which converts to Vitamin A. The deeper the colour of the carrot the higher the concentration of beta carotene. Vitamin A helps with night vision,( werent we always told to eat carrots so we could see better) older carrots have higher sugar so therefore taste sweeter, but younger carrots have more folate, useful for expectant mothers. They have great dietry fibre, and as with many other vegetables you should leave the skins on as this is where all the fibre and goodness is. Carrots can be used in so many things, as a steamed vegetable, roasted, in cakes and puddings,finely chopped and sauteed then added to rice, in curries and stir fries, salads or just to nibble on, the possibilities are endless. My father once grew a carrot which was 14 inches long and 17 inches around, not sure how much it weighed but it was a beauty.