St. Valery Carrot
Item Details
Deliciously sweet and excellent for storage, the fine-grained, red-orange roots of this historic variety, also known as James Scarlet, grow up to 12" long. In 1885, the renowned French seed company Vilmorin-Andrieux stated the variety had been grown for a “long time,” and in 1924, James Vick & Sons Company of Rochester, New York, reported that St. Valery was “the best and most handsome main crop carrot... enormously productive.”
- 80-90 days
- ±20,000 seeds/oz
- Conventional
- Sweet flavor and fine texture
- Red-orange skin
- Roots grow up to 12 inches
- Excellent for storage
This variety works for:
- Fresh eating
- Steaming
- Boiling
- Soup
- Storage
Carrots are one of the most popular vegetables for fresh eating and have also become a staple of juicing. Grated carrots can be tossed into a salad or with zucchini and fried.
Try pairing your roasted carrots with ginger, mushrooms, and red wine vinegar or creating a carrot-curry soup to warm up on cold winter days.
Diced carrots are part of the "culinary trinity" of stock/broth, known as mirepoix, which also includes celery and onions. Mix 2 parts onions to 1 part each of carrot and celery to form the flavor base for many stocks, soups, stews, and sauces.
Growing Instructions
Instructions - Sow seeds outdoors 3-4 weeks before last spring frost, or as soon as soil can be worked. Keeping soil moist throughout the germination period is important to success. Misting the planted area daily or covering is recommended. Carrots are slow to germinate and need steady moisture until germination. Sow successively throughout the season for fresh carrots.
- Direct Seed: 1/2" Apart
- Seed Depth: 1/4"
- Rows Apart: 16-24"
- Thin: 2-4" Apart
Ratings & Reviews
4 reviews
dull flavor
by Jeanne
Long wait for these only to disappoint in flavor. Great storage carrot or for fodder.
St Valery, a happy surprise of a carrot!
by Bill
I grow a lot of storage carrots and am used to them having a strong flavor, and sometimes a bitterness, before a bit of frost and storage sweeten them up. I was very pleasantly surprised by this carrot--it is very mild with no bitterness at all right out of the ground. I also found its color to be a very light orange with a lot of yellow to it--very attractive in a dish of mixed carrots. It grows very well, super-strong tops and large carrots in my raised beds. Cooked in olive oil and dressed with salt and pepper these were fabulous right out of my mid-October garden.
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by Amy
These came out better than the picture. They were long, thick and beautiful. If I could submit a pic, I would. Good flavor.
Seed Savers Response: Photos can be sent to photos@seedsavers.org. We love seeing how things do around the country.
You can eat the thinned ones!
by Laura
I love how sweet these are, even when they're tiny. I start eating them when they're the size of my pinky, and we're lucky if any make it to fall traditional harvest time.