Carrot Paris Market

The little round carrot that grows where ordinary carrots cannot. Paris Market makes roots roughly the size of a golf ball, bright orange and completely round, and it produces a whole carrot in the top few centimetres of soil.

It was bred in the nineteenth century for the heavy clay of the Paris market gardens, where long-rooted varieties simply failed. That is exactly why it works here — shallow soil, stony ground, heavy clay, a window box, a pot on a balcony. A container fifteen centimetres deep is enough.

The flavour is sweet, mild and tender, meant for eating fresh rather than storing. It is ready in nine or ten weeks, one of the fastest carrots there is, and children find pulling up something round rather than long genuinely delightful.