I don’t think there’s a vegetable I’ve met that I didn’t like. Although, I haven’t been introduced to a fiddlehead yet. Shocking I know. My social plant bubble probably can’t expand any time soon for taro, okra or kohlrabi. Okra! You squeal. Come on!

Don’t you get butterflies in your stomach and aches in your loins when you see a kitchen pin board filled with over-sized bowls or baskets, placed intentionally on smooth marble counters, showing off waterfalls of fresh produce?

I want bucket loads of fruits and vegetables set out like breathtaking public art in my home. Weekly. And when it gets depleted, I want more.

For me, having this bountiful display is a ‘buzzer’ to eat more plants. The recipes and possibilities are endless. I look at the leaf lettuce and somehow I hear Jamie Oliver saying the word ‘Veg’. You know what I’m talking about.

(This is the still life I painted in class. Circa. 1974)

I’m drawn to vegetable still life art. It stems from my high school art class where my Teacher would haphazardly lay out vegetables on one of her own pajama tops. My heart beats fast just thinking about those 3 hour painting sessions. I’m pretty certain my Teacher left the room by the time I under-painted the cabbage to eat a long lunch, heavy on meat or sponge toffee with a Tab, and never really taught us a thing. But I got an A+. Maybe we all did.

Plant power is awe-inspiring, but better still is the deliciousness of food that grows in soil. My vegetable haul makes me happy. Now I have to decide how to cook it.

Peace Love Create Art,

Patti xo

Reporting from The Food Dept inside the International Embassy of Ideas

Copyright 2020 Patti Friday b. 1959