Over the past couple years I had fun growing carrots of all colors, but at some point I realized that the best tasting carrots were orange. Too often, carrots of other colors were fibrous or bitter. So this last winter I grew only orange carrots. More than that, I grew mostly one variety: the Mokum.

Mokum has everything I want in a carrot. The texture is most delicate and tender. I’ve never tasted fiber in a Mokum carrot. It snaps like a fresh apple every bite. In fact it is brittle. I’ve had to help harvest the Mokums for my kids nore than any other variety of carrot because the kids so often break them while pulling them out of the ground.

Broken Mokum, pull another.

I’ve also yet to taste bitterness. It is now May and the soil is warming and carrots should start tasting less sweet, but the Mokums still taste as right as they did in winter. I’m impressed with how well they retain good flavor.

I’m not unique in being a Mokum fan. My seeds have all come from Territorial Seed Company in Oregon, who says of Mokum,“It’s still the finest fresh-eating carrot we know.”

As carrots are categorized, the company who owns the Mokum variety (it is an F1 hybrid), a Dutch company called Bejo, describes it as a “bunching” type: “Relatively short, healthy foliage is ideal for bunching,” they say. But they also praise its eating qualities: “This variety has a very good flavour – the best of the bunching carrots.”

The Mokums we’re eating right now were sown on February 3, an ideal time to sow carrots in Southern California.

Row of Mokum carrots sown February 3; harvest started in April.

While it’s now too late to sow good carrots in Southern California, keep Mokum in mind for sowing starting in the fall. (See my post, “Growing carrots in Southern California.”) Seed is in short supply right now, but keep looking and buy some whenever you see it’s available. You will not be disappointed.

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