Looks can be deceiving. And the lesson came back in the form of carrots.

I was in the mood for a soothing glass of sweet carrot juice. The idea came in the form of those big, fat, plump, orange-colored carrots.

They were labeled organic and I bought a big sack to run through the juicer. But I was in for a huge disappointment.

The juice was not only bitter but lacked any semblance of a carrot taste I was accustomed to.

"What happened?" I mulled over this disappointment for a couple of days. I certainly could "get over it" like friends would have advised. I could have bought a commercial brand that would have pasteurized the subject to questionable form. (Regarding Pasteur vs. Bechamp, I have become pro-terrain).

So I stayed with the question, "How is it that a batch of big, starchy-looking, orangey carrots ended up tasting awful?"

There's something great about asking a question. The answer comes back to the earnest. While reading various articles on vegetables, I came across a comment on carrots being the sweetest when their tops stayed on. Eureka!

So I went back to the morgue for fresh specimen. Carrots whose bodies were not decapitated. They were skinny and bloody. They were the reddest carrots with the greenest heads.

Not only was the theory proven true, I had made another discovery. One can get her greens on by juicing the whole bunch in its entirety.

The drink will look black. To liven it up, I used tangelos and a bit of lemon.

Carrot Blood, Recipe:

1 bunch of organic blood carrots with the greenest tops

3 peeled tangelos (aka Minneolas)

1/4 organic lemon (with peel)