Every week we get Down & Dirty, in which we break down our favorite unique seasonal fruits, vegetables, and more.

Today: A carrot of a different color, plus how to use them, where to find them -- and how to store them once you do.

Carrots are an underrated bunch. There might even be a mostly full package of them languishing in the crisper drawer of your fridge right now. We get it, you bought a bagful for a mirepoix and then neglected the rest, so they were left to wither away.

That wouldn’t have happened if they were purple. 

Last week, we talked all about citrus, from simple navel oranges to elegant bergamots. Today we're scaling down to talk about a whole range of tiny citruses, from the quotidian (lemons and limes -- what's the difference between them, again?) to the fantastical (calamondins). Pucker up and get ready -- we have so much to cover!

Citrus are winter's glory, the bright spot of sunshine amongst a cellar's worth of dirt-covered root vegetables. There's a fantastically wide array of them, too -- so many that we're taking two weeks to cover them all. Stay tuned for tiny citrus next Friday, because today it's all about the big guns: orange clones, grapefruit's meaty predecessor, hard-to-find Bergamot, and everything in between. (Bonus points if you correctly identify all 8 varieties in the above photo. No peeking!)

We'll be focusing on more glamorous cold-weather produce in the coming weeks -- citrus, anyone? -- but today it's all about winter's root vegetable workhorses. Turnips and rutabagas are both in the brassica family (along with broccoli and cauliflower, brussels sprouts, cabbage, and more) and are as hardy as root vegetables can be -- although telling them apart can be tricky!

It seems so obvious that quinces are close cousins to apples and pears -- that is, until you bite into one. Astringent and sweetly bitter (very similar to persimmons, in fact), they're not easy to love. But with proper handling, some seed-saving, and the right recipes, you'll be stocking up on quinces all winter long.

With tan, green, and yellow skin that yields to bright orange insides, winter squash provide a cold-weather splash of color at farmers' market. Though they're closely related to melons and (of course) summer squash, winter squash have unique characteristics -- their tough skin, delicious seeds, and sweet flesh make them kitchen staples from the beginning of autumn until spring.

Persimmons -- have you submitted your recipe to this week's contest yet? -- are a winter fruit easy to overlook. They're sold unripened, to start, which can be confusing. But your patience in ripening them is rewarded with silky, gently jellied, intensely sweet flesh that can be used in everything from salads to baked goods.

The last time we talked about potatoes, Marian Bull helped us figure out how to match recipes to the potatoes that suit them best -- starchy Russets for mashing, waxy red potatoes for salads, and more. Today we're digging underground to learn even more about the potato: we'll talk about how they're actually the stems of the plant, what exactly a potato fruit looks like, and what it really means when their skin turns green after storage.

Today we're learning all about the jewel-like cranberry as it goes from puckeringly sour in the raw to richly sweet when cooked. Native to this continent and a close cousin to blueberries, lingonberries, and huckleberries, the cranberry is so much more than just a Thanksgiving one-off. As American as apple pie? Try as American as cranberry sauce!