A single carrot with a feathery bunch of leaves, drawn in thick outlines with plenty of open space 🥕 Orange for the root and green for the tops is enough to finish it, so it stays manageable for two- to five-year-olds — and it makes an easy prompt for a conversation about vegetables at the table or in class.
PDF (2 pages: line art and a color sample) and PNG
Why are carrots orange?
The color comes from carotene, a pigment the body converts into vitamin A. Vitamin A is genuinely needed for normal vision, but eating extra carrots does not give anyone sharper-than-normal eyesight — that idea spread as wartime publicity and has been repeated ever since. Worth knowing too: carrots were once mostly purple, white or yellow, and the orange kind only became the standard in early modern Europe.
Do rabbits really live on carrots?
Not really. A rabbit will happily eat a carrot, but its staple food is grass and hay. Carrots are high in sugar, so keepers treat them as an occasional treat rather than a meal. The picture-book rabbit with a carrot in its paw owes more to cartoons than to how rabbits actually feed.
Can you eat the leafy tops?
Yes. Carrot tops are edible, and in Japan they are often fried as tempura or chopped fine and dried into a seasoning to sprinkle over rice. They taste stronger and more herb-like than the root. Greengrocers usually trim them off before sale, so they are worth asking about if you would like to try them.
