As a carrot grower, I’ve come to value the health benefits that carrots are known for:
- Eye health, night vision
- Antioxidants that help fortify against cancer
- Immune support
- Minerals for healthy bones
- And the list goes on
I appreciate feedback from our customers. Comments about our carrots having better flavor are a little encouraging. Stories about noticing more health benefits from our carrots are really encouraging. These stories and comments help us want to keep doing what we’re doing, even when the growing season is difficult.
A verse that comes to mind when I’m crunching on one of our carrots that’s been sweetened by a nip of frost is Psalm 34:8 – “Taste and see that the LORD is good.”
However, it seems that everywhere we look in nature, we don’t only see good. It’s no exception with carrots. It’s not just the fatigue from the long days that are sometimes required to achieve a successful carrot crop. It’s not just the losses that occur when the growing season doesn’t go as planned. Even the endless battle with weeds doesn’t encapsulate the evil that contrasts with the goodness of carrots.
Carrots have evil cousins. Really evil.
Picture this: You’re out in the woods, and you’re hungry. You come into a beautiful meadow, and there you see it: the biggest carrot you’ve ever seen. You race to it and start digging it up. But then you notice something funny. The massive “carrot” is a little different: it smells different, the texture is different. Your better judgment tells you to not eat this carrot until you’ve done more research, so you carry it with you as you hike on. A little later, you realize that the itch you want to scratch on your arm is the same one that you itched a minute ago. Then you start to notice more of these itches. Looking at your arm alarms you – it’s red and festering. And the story keeps getting worse…
Carrots have two cousins that could give you a story like what’s written above: Giant Hogweed and Cow Parsnip. Giant Hogweed is the greater evil, but both can be bad enough to be life-threatening. You don’t even have to eat these plants to be affected. Just touching these plants can give you a nasty rash and blisters. Exposure to sunlight makes these rashes much worse.
Carrots have other nasty cousins: Poison Hemlock and Water Hemlock are lethal when ingested – even in small amounts. They don’t only look similar to carrots; they also grow to a similar size. One must know the carrot family well to avoid mistaking these monsters for a nice, health-promoting wild carrot.
So here we have it: a picture of the great battle between good and evil, illustrated once again in the garden:
- Carrots are awesome (Psalm 34:8)
- We won’t get carrots unless we work for them (Genesis 3:17-19)
- We also won’t get carrots unless God provides what they need (Psalm 104:13,14)
- We need to know carrots well, so that we won’t be fooled by their nasty cousins (John 17:3)
- Carelessness or ignorance can be deadly if carrots’ nasty cousins are around (Proverbs 14:12)
- Even handling some of carrots’ nasty cousins can make sunlight painful (John 3:19)
If you mess with carrots’ evil cousins, you’ll need a good doctor. Thankfully, in the battle between good and evil that often leaves us in painful predicaments, we have a Good Doctor (Mark 2:17).