TOMATOES TO TOPIARY

In 2009 I began my blogging career with a goal to paint one food illustration a day for an entire year. That adventure was coined THE LUNCH BOX PROJECT.  It was a thrilling joyride to create daily, learn about the ins and outs of food (since I'm not much of a cook), and become part of the welcoming food blogging community.

While I whipped up delectable dishes each night with my paint brush, I continued to work my "full-time job" at a university botanical garden as an educator, planner, and designer, then later teaching in the horticulture department. I loved both parts of my life and continued this parallel activity for four years. I even began another blog for a short time, TOPIARY & TIRAMISU, to help fulfill that need to talk about gardening.

In 2011, when I shifted to teaching landscape design full time in our university's horticulture department, I found the career of my dreams. I was now able to share my love of garden design with talented students everyday. This joy was so powerful that I wanted to start sharing my tips and tricks with gardeners outside the university too...but it was exhausting trying to keep up with both my former garden blog and my food blog. Someone suggested I combine both focuses into one blog, which worked for awhile, but my love of garden design took over.

So this week I finally made the decision to finish THE LUNCH BOX PROJECT (after all, it really is a project that has been successfully completed). I will continue to draw food as it relates to the garden (because my husband is a crazy vegetable gardener and I can't ignore that part of my life), but my new focus will mostly be garden design. Through all of this I am still an illustrator and that will never go away. I hope my illustration background and quirky way of looking at design will pop a breath of fresh air into our beautiful, manipulated, plant-filled outdoor spaces.

Thanks to those that have supported me through THE LUNCH BOX PROJECT and a big welcome to all my new readers that yearn for a new perspective on garden design.

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Sara Savoury

This is a family and friend favorite from Sara's Kitchen Creations. It's a pastry puff filled with lots of fabulous vegetables....including zucchini.

Which brings me to another topic - my garden is popping with zucchini so the next few posts will highlight them.

The Tomato Wagon

Sometimes we have so many tomatoes that we run out of places to store them. Often the wagon serves this purpose. Of course, this location allows visitors to grab a few for themselves too.

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Free Food: Coffee and Tomatoes

It seems there is always an abundance of two things...coffee and tomatoes. This overpopulation often results in free giveaways. Why, oh why do I not like either one?! Why can't I walk into an office and have someone offer me a piece of cheesecake or a bowl of ice cream? Or have someone leave a basket of brownies, day after day, in late summer with a sign that says "free for the taking." {print available}

24 Pounds

Americans eat approximately 24 pounds of tomatoes per person, per year (BellyBytes.com). Not liking tomatoes and all, I wonder if I consume that much just through ketchup and tomato soup? Hmmm....

Did you know that I have tomato notecards available? I almost forgot!

Good for You

Americans obtain more vitamins from tomatoes than from any other vegetable (BellyBytes.com). Ugh, I guess that means I should eat more tomatoes?

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The Tomato/Cucumber Swap

I love cucumbers and my husband loves tomatoes, but neither of us like the opposite. The result is the "swap". When we are at a restaurant peering into our mixed salads, we each poke the appropriate vegetable with our fork and gently place it in our spouse's salad. The result is a salad monoculture making us both happy.

My Obsessive Husband

Yes, my husband enjoys tomatoes too...and let me point out he does nothing small.

He collects RedWing dinnerware and pottery (we have a whole room dedicated to it), he loves hostas (we have over 200+ cultivars in our yard), he is a crafty carpenter (with a whole workshop full of tools), and he enjoys vegetable gardening. One year he planted hundreds of pumpkins and our whole front yard was covered in smiling jack-o-lanterns. The same year he planted over fifty tomato plants (about 15 different kinds).

Remember...I don't like tomatoes and my mom didn't even live close enough to enjoy one of them. I'm not even sure where they all went..neighbors, friends, canning??

Raw vs. Liquified

I know this is a common oddity among those with distaste for tomatoes...we don't like raw tomatoes, but love tomato soup, spaghetti sauce, ketchup, and even salsa. Hey, at least I can use the tomato in some format...since there are millions of them.

Happy Tomato

Okay, so my mom is a tomato madwoman. In my childhood home rows of tomatoes often lined the countertop...all happily waiting to ripen for the next perfect tomato snack. Tomatoes on cottage cheese, tomatoes on burgers, or sliced tomatoes with a simple sprinkle of salt. I just lived my parallel tomato-less life.

Gravel, Grass and Growing Tomatoes

Imagine living in a 1970s ranch with a gravel driveway, a sloping lawn, one single mulberry tree, and a lone tomato plant. That is my garden history.

My parents were not gardeners, so our yard was devoid of all those shrubby extras. There was only one plant that my mom mastered: the tomato.

Her love for that juicy vegetable meant one green plant always grew between our small concrete path and the house foundation.

Vegetable by Law

Botanically speaking tomatoes are fruit. In the culinary world they are vegetables. Here is an interesting tidbit...in 1883 the tomato was legally defined as a vegetable. Why? Find out more here. Thanks to Leila for sharing this via Facebook.

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A Culinary Term

The word "vegetable" is actually a culinary term, not a botanical one. When cooking, the tomato is indeed a vegetable, but if studying botany it would be referred to as a fruit.

Does that clear it up for you?

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My Secret

I don't like tomatoes. So why in the world am I dedicating a whole month of illustrations to them? Two reasons...first, I have a lot of personal tomato stories (strange as it is) and second, I really love drawing tomatoes. They are quite happy-looking. It's not that I hate tomatoes, it's just that I really don't love the taste of them (at least in the raw state).

Three Tomatoes

As we wind down the year I thought I'd mention that by February I should have a new, updated, snazzy website. I'm trying to pull all my thoughts and art together more cohesively. If there is anything you'd ever like me to do or try with food art, please let me know. I love trying new things. {oh, happy b-day juls!!} {print available}

Thanks for the 100

I really can't believe it. Yesterday I gained my 100th official follower! As a big thanks I want to give all of you $20 off a Lunch Box Project card painting through next Monday, September 21 (they are normally $65, now $45 for the week...and they are original paintings). A big thanks for reading all these silly posts over the past nine months!

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A Wagon Full of Tomatoes

So many tomatoes are popping out of our garden that we have to find places to store them. Our wagon is one spot. It's strategically placed so we can encourage visitors to grab a bunch. We even hand them a plastic bag to make it a little easier. {print available}

Flying Tomatoes

It seems that tomatoes are just flying out of our garden. I think we picked about 50 the other day. It made my mom very happy - being the tomato lover she is.

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Free food: Coffee and Tomatoes

It seems there is always an abundance of two things...coffee and tomatoes. This overpopulation often results in free giveaways. Why, oh why do I not like either one?! Why can't I walk into an office and have someone offer me a piece of cheesecake or a bowl of ice cream? Or have someone leave a bowl of brownies, day after day, in late summer with a sign that says "free for the taking." {available}