other inedible art!

Today was a market day, which is always a great deal of fun. Seeing people squeal in delight over teeny avocados or spaghetti and meatballs on a necklace, hearing stories about what our goodies remind people of, and best of all being sandwiched between two fresh produce vendors- what more can I ask for in a morning? (And the fresh stuff was particularly amazing today- local white peaches that are absolutely heavenly, and some picked-last-night cucumbers and yellow squash- I love it!)

As you can vaguely see from the photo at the beginning of this post, we have a largish sign advertising our wares. All day long, people read the "100% inedible", see the photos of the food, and exclaim "Really! You can eat it?!" I suspect this is partly because there is a vendor at our market who fries donuts on the spot, and as a result a cinnamon-sugar fried donut perfume is constantly wafting about on the breeze. (This is good for business.)

As you might well imagine, not a few people have asked whether we ever thought of making jewelry that was actually edible. To which we generally reply that it's been done (think drugstore candy necklaces), and that we can't imagine the stress of food vending, but that it's a great idea and they're more than welcome to run with it. Think of the repeat business!

Anyhow (after that really long lead-in), I couldn't help but love this article about a guy in California who uses tortillas as his canvas. Here we have someone who creates inedible art from something actually potentially edible. How I would love to be next to him at a market! Can you imagine the customers?

(In front of our booth, coffee in hand, with friend) "Really, you can eat it?"
"Nope, it just looks like food!"
"Oh cool!" (browse, browse, browse, take card, move along)
(moved along to tortilla artist's booth, next door)
"Wait, so you can eat it?"
"No, no, it's just on a tortilla."

Sadly, the article doesn't really show much of his work, so I tracked down his gallery website. Personally, I was kinda hoping for more use of the cool burn marks that flame leaves on the surface, as opposed to just the paint, but it's also possible that tortilla art does not translate well to photography.

All in all, though, it's always nice to run across people doing fun things with food! :)