Are Green Carrot 'Shoulders' Safe To Eat?

Noticing that any vegetable in your kitchen isn't the right color is a point of concern. These days, carrots are no longer only available in that ubiquitous bright orange hue, but among the entire root vegetable rainbow that you can find at your local farmers market, there is one color that might not be a part of the plan. Obviously orange carrots are fine, as are purple, yellow, red, and white. Color can actually tell you a lot about a carrot's flavor, especially, as it turns out, when it's green. Now, carrots never grow entirely green, but you might notice that sometimes the tops take on a greenish hue...

We spoke with Chef Eli Collins of a.kitchen+bar Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., to get to the bottom of what exactly this phenomenon is all about. "Carrot shoulder is the part of the carrot where the greens emerge from the root," Collins reveals. As it turns out, these shoulders can sometimes take on a greenish hue. Fortunately, he also notes that unlike potatoes — which you shouldn't eat after they've turned green — this greening in carrots is not something that you need to concern yourself with too much. "Green shoulders are safe to eat," he explains, "but [are] considered too bitter to enjoy."

So, should you pick up a bunch of carrots at the store and not notice until you're home that the tops have started to turn, don't throw them in the compost. You probably don't want to eat that bit, but you can just trim off the affected area and make use of the rest without concern.

There isn't much that you can do about green shoulders on carrots that you get from the store, but when it comes to your own garden, all it takes is a little bit of care and attention to nip this issue in the bud. The cause of green shoulders in carrots is a simple one. According to Collins, they simply "turn green with exposure to sunlight." As carrots grow and thicken in the ground, there is a tendency for them to be pushed upward, exposing the shoulders to the sun. This, in turn, leads to chlorophyll production in that part of the root, turning it both green and bitter.

While sunlight is a vital part of any garden, it is also a simple thing to exclude for your root vegetables. Should you notice the shoulders of your carrots beginning to peek out from the ground, all you need to do is top them with a little bit of mulch or soil. This will ensure that throughout the growing process, the whole length of that tender taproot stays as sweet as can be.

Although careful gardening can prevent your carrots from developing green shoulders, it really isn't such a big deal if you find them. It is better practice to trim those bits off, especially if you are making a recipe where carrots are really the star, like these roasted rainbow carrots with ginger and orange. But if you are working with something like this silky carrot apple soup recipe, a little bitterness will blend into the background more easily. Either way, you can rest assured that those green shoulders are perfectly safe to eat.