The ultimate deception has been perpetrated on us. Baby carrots are not really baby carrots. Learning the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny and Santa were but figments of our imagination was difficult to accept, but ersatz baby carrots? A recent news story about baby carrots revealed the fact that baby carrots weren't infant carrots at all. Instead they were full-sized, misshapen carrots that were cut in several pieces lengthwise, generally three or four, then peeled, shaved and whittled down to resemble miniature carrots. Voila! baby carrots. The miniatures are the brainchild of a California farmer tired of discarding imperfect vegetables. Sixteen years ago, Mike Yurosek of Newhall, Calif., was dismayed to see 400 tons of carrots a day discarded at his Bakersfield packing plant. Those trashed carrots were too twisted, knobby, bent or broken to sell. Sometimes 70 percent of carrots were tossed. Yurosek says there are only so many discarded carrots you can feed to a hog or a cow. "After that, their fat turns orange," he says. In 1986, Yurosek got an idea that would spare him monetary loss from those tossed carrots, and incidentally, change the eating habits of Americans. Yurosek was aware processors cut well-shaped carrots into coins, cubes and tiny carrots for freezing and canning. He figured he could do the same and pack them fresh. So, he took those big ugly carrots, tossed them into a potato peeler and cut them into pieces small enough to make use of the straight parts. He then bought a used industrial green bean cutter that chopped things into 2-inch pieces, which became the standard size for baby carrots. The cut carrots were chucked into an industrial potato peeler, where they were peeled and smoothed. The resulting vegetable was a little scraggy, but still resembled today's baby carrot. Four decades ago, the average American ate more than 6 pounds of carrots per annum; today we eat roughly 10 1/2 pounds. Apparently, all due to baby carrots, which we view as tastier and more tender. Ho, ho, ho. The laugh's on us. Here we are, fastidious fools, eating discards. Refashioned discards to be sure, but rejects none the less. And we are willing to pay more for them. I find it hilarious that finicky eaters are chowing down on food once deemed fit only for hogs and cattle. Sure "baby" carrots are cute and bite-size. They appeal to kids and people who like to dip, but they cost more than big old carrots you can buy in or out of a cellophane sack and cut down to bite size yourself. You could even whittle big fat carrots into cute little babies if you had the time and were neurotic enough. And for those of you who believe carrots -- babies or otherwise --are sweeter than carrots of the past, actually you're right. Carrot growers have taken the occasionally bitter, woody carrot and bred it into a crunchy, sweet, nutritious treat. They also now breed for enhanced length, smoothness and a cylindrical shape that permits baby carrot processors to lose as little of the product s possible. The quest for breeders now is a longer carrot. Generally, carrots are 8-inches long. These can be cut into three 2-inch babies. But a longer carrot would permit a four-cut. This would mean a greater "baby" yield for producers. And we might be allowed to pay even more for something we could do ourselves for nothing. Could we not slice, dice and chop big carrots into small pieces and munch on them, especially now that we know there is no such thing as a carrot "baby?" Oh, shoot, they just wouldn't be as cute, now would they?

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