Press release from Morrisons
The wonky carrots – which are oversized, misshapen and scarred, but still taste delicious – will be handed out in bags labelled ‘Carrots for Rudolph’ from the entrances of the 493 Morrisons stores across the UK on Saturday 21st December.
The move aims to introduce children to wonky veg and encourage families to buy large, misshapen or slightly scarred carrots. At Christmas time carrot sales soar – from a typical 450,000 bags-a-week in Morrisons to over 1.6 million in the last three weeks of December – wonky carrots still only account for between 10 to 15 % of carrots sales. Many customers have yet to put them in their baskets.
‘Carrots for Rudolph’ will also help British carrot farmers who have harvested more wonky carrots than usual this autumn – due to the unseasonably wet weather in October and November. Pulling carrots from wet fields has resulted in muddy or slightly scarred carrots which have fallen short of a ‘Class 1’ criteria. In addition, some of the crop has grown to be oversized or oddly shaped. Despite appearances, all of these carrots are just as good to eat.
Alastair Ferguson, Carrot Farmer for Morrisons at Strawsons Farm said:
‘The heavy rainfall this year has made harvesting very challenging. We’ve plenty of standard carrots for Christmas dinner – but also have a lot of wonky carrots. Carrots for Rudolph is helpful because it introduces customers to wonky, finds these carrots a home, and stops them being wasted.’
Andy Todd, Carrot Buyer at Morrisons said:
“We want to make it easy for our customers to enjoy these magical Christmas traditions. And at the same time we want to highlight that wonky carrots are just as tasty as perfect-looking carrots – to support our farmers.”
The tradition of leaving food and drink out for Father Christmas and his reindeer can be traced all the way back to ancient Norse mythology where children would leave out food for Sleipner, the eight-legged horse ridden by Norse God Odin, in the hope that he would stop by on his travels and leave gifts in return.
To revive other British festive traditions, Morrisons will also be giving customers Christmas Oranges for Stockings on Sunday 22nd December. The oranges will be given to parents along with a story-card telling the history of the tradition – so that parents can read it to their children ahead of the big day.
Morrisons Wonky Carrots are on sale at 50p for a 1kg from all Morrisons stores.
For more information, visit: www.morrisons.com .
