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The Carrot King - Jeff Chiplis
Jeff Chiplis from Cleveland, Ohio must lay
claim to the title "Carrot King". For over 25 years he has collected carrot bags
simply because he likes the graphics. He started the collection when he noticed
the graphics on a carrot bag in a grocery
store in Indiana and found it interesting. He ate the carrots and taped the bag
to his fridge door, before too long his door was covered with souvenir bags and
the rest as they say is history. He even had the nerve to ask the produce
department to hand over the larger 50 pound bags which also had interesting
graphics on them. He now has over 700 bags from around the world, including, of
course a donation from the World Carrot Museum.
His refrigerator evidenced a patchwork of carrot bags, from the familiar Bunny Luv brand (distinguished by its cottontailed pinup girl) to Single Pleasures ("Fresh and Crisp!"). He had entered a world that was see-through, with faint blue lines running through it, sealed with a Twistie. One where rabbits wore boxing gloves (Up 'N' Atom brand) and red devils held bouquets of carrots like poison arrows (El Diabillo, from Argentina). Where the steadfast names of farmers' daughters were injected with innuendo and plastered on packaging: "Shirley -- Fast and Fresh," "You'll Long for Lisa."
His collection soon came to the attention of the carrot industry and has
been invited to be Grand
Marshall at the Carrot Festival in Holtville and
reviewed the parade in his carrot slippers! When civic leaders in Holtville,
the Carrot Capital of California, got wind of Chiplis's bags, they asked
him to be the grand marshal in their Carrot Festival parade. So he rode in
a hot-air balloon with the Holtville Carrot Queen and waved to adoring throngs
from the reviewing stand, his lovely wife beside him in a sparkling tiara
made of paper carrots. He spent five days in Holtville, exhibiting his bags
at City Hall.
His collection has come from far and wide, he even roped in his sister who
had to explain to an Argentinian market seller that she only wanted the bag
and not the contents. Jeff has several bags that display a rabbit which bears
a significant resemblance to Bugs Bunny.
Some samples from the collection |
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The oldest label in the collection is for Howdy Doodie carrots dating from the 1950's. The mainstay of his collection are plastic and burlap bags. Jeff says "What's nice about the carrot bags is you can fold them up and put them under your arm and go places with them." Anything which is compact, easy to collect, easy to transport, and a wide variety is the ideal collectible. Carrot bags also mail well. A local woman who had seen Jeff on TV once sent him about 80 bags, ironed and folded. She had saved them for years under the sink, storing them in her rag bags.
Jeff's total collection carrot memorabilia totals over 10,000
with items such as comic books, cartoons, kitchen tools and carrot gardeners row
planter markers. He has toys, tee shirts and a carrot fishing fly! The list just
goes on and on ... 
Christmas Tree
decorations, plates, cups, fridge magnets.
Jeff's carrot outreach also includes crashing neighbourhood Easter Egg hunts.
He shows up anonymously, in a full-length foam rubber carrot suit, muscles
in beside a bewildered Easter Bunny, and gives carrots to the kids. "They're
healthier than candy," he says. The kids seemed to take to the idea, he says.
"I think they just see it as a big carrot. I think they made the connection."
Jeff's wife, Cindy, is a social worker who "definitely sees things as more carrot than cute." When they married, they hired a Buddhist minister who converted to Judaism at the last minute and couldn't officiate. But they found a Unitarian minister willing to read lines like "If you carrot all about each other . . .," and the ceremony went on without a hitch. Love crunches all.
Jeff truly reflects the essence of carrot madness. Well done Jeff.
If anyone has a carrot bag to spare you can mail the Carrot Museum for details.
Jeff, the Carrot King, really is a man in touch with his roots.
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