The News Minute | August 7, 2014 | 1.40 pm ISTWe can all learn a thing or two about things we thought we knew for sure. For instance, if someone were to ask you what colour is a carrot, you’d say orange without giving it a second thought. But what if they weren’t always orange?According to website Today I Found Out, carrots used to be purple before the 17th century. A post on the website says: “Before this, pretty much all carrots were purple with mutated versions occasionally popping up including yellow and white carrots. These were rarely cultivated and lacked the purple pigment anthocyanin.”And: “Some think that the reason the orange carrot became so popular in the Netherlands was in tribute to the emblem of the House of Orange and the struggle for Dutch independence. “The post also explains how carrots were cultivated to develop the orange variety and provides a lot of trivia on the plant and how it was used. Did you know that could actually turn orange if you ate too many carrots?For more on different types of carrots visit the World Carrot Museum in the United Kingdom.