To what extent can it be verified that orange carrots were bred by Dutch growers as a tribute to the House of Orange? What made orange carrots so desirable that other colors fell out of cultivation?

by MonsieurJongleur

I read a crappy business book citing the House of Orange as "branding" carrots. Don't ask, it was a terrible book. After doing a bit of googling, it seems there's a widespread understanding of a connection between the orangification of carrots and the House of Orange, but not a lot of hard evidence.

So why, exactly, did orange carrots catch on to such an extent? Surely someone outside of Holland wanted to continue growing purple carrots?

Itsalrightwithme

This is not a direct answer, but as far as I can tell, all articles that mention this either (a) do not provide any references or, (b) cite Simon Schama's Patriots and Liberators. I do not have access to a copy, and I do not really know Schama beyond this one badhistory post.

So that was a long winded way to say that my gut feel says this is apocryphal.