Don’t Forget the Tops!

By Kymisha Montgomery, CGC Urban Agriculture Coordinator

Did you know that once upon a time, beets and carrots were primarily cultivated for their tops (greens) and not their roots? It all began with the sea beet, a wild ancestor of the domesticated beet we’re familiar with. Since ancient times, it has grown wild around the shores of the Mediterranean. Ancient Mediterraneans began cultivating this plant not for its root, but for its leafy greens. These greens, known as chard (a close relative), were prominently used medicinally and became domesticated around 2000 B.C. to season the soups of Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and other coastal dwellers.

The beet’s earliest form more closely resembled a parsnip rather than the bulbs we're now familiar with. The variety we know is thought to have evolved from a prehistoric North African root vegetable. It soon became the most recognizable form of beet, but it wasn't a worldwide culinary success until about two centuries later. Northeastern Europe was the first area to embrace the beet root as a dietary staple, perhaps in part because it was one of the only vegetables that grew well throughout the winter.

Like beets, carrots were once primarily cultivated for their tops as well as for their medicinal uses. Unlike the orange, sweet, crunchy cultivar we’re familiar with, this root was originally yellow and purple and native to Central Asia and the Afghanistan region, deriving from the wild carrot. Dutch growers in the seventeenth century cultivated orange carrots through selective breeding as a sweeter and less bitter variety than their purple and yellow counterparts. Today, the many uses for carrot tops range from soups and pesto to salads and garnishes. 

When you’re harvesting these root crops this growing season, don’t forget you can eat the tops, too!