Grey Zuchinni

Although this one is not completely finished I myself am done for the day :) But here is the almost done Grey Zuchinni:

The pictures I've been working from for these zukes show beautiful mottled fruit, but also beautiful mottled leaves, as you can hopefully see in the painting. The SESE catalog says they have excellent flavor and texture.
An interesting thing that I didn't know until I read it just now on wikipedia is that the zuchinni has male flowers and female flowers. The female ones grow at the end of the zuchinni and the male ones grow directly on the stem. All squash flowers, male or female, are yummy to eat.
And here is a little life reflecting ramble just because I feel like it: Yesterday I was telling Kimi, the cat lady, how I arrived at Twin Oaks when I did, and I decided to start the story from when I graduated from high school and I wanted to travel around and make art. Normally when I tell this to people it's with an awareness that I was naive and it was sort of a silly idea to think that I could somehow get by that way, but this time as I was saying it I realized that that is exactly what I am doing right now. And without even trying I'd somehow gotten somewhere I'd wanted to be a long time ago. Just a kind of fun and neat realization.
Yay for art! And travel. And for Acorn and SESE for making it possible.

Anaheim Chile

We're back to fresh posts with fresh art as Juneau and I are settling into cat world. In most ways I feel as though we've hit the jackpot. The woman whose cats we're watching is really nice and very like-minded, we are surrounded by tons of art books which will inspire me when I don't feel like painting, she's leaving behind lots of tea and yummy food, no bills, free netflix, and even art supplies in her her studio room! and we get to cuddle with lots of kitties. I don't mind cleaning up after cats for that. I don't mind cleaning up after cats anyway. The only problem so far is that I need to learn to not leave a painting out even for five minutes. I was working on this anaheim chile, finished it completely, ready to scan, and had to go to the bathroom. When I came back, Yoshi, a little orange fluff ball, was sniffing around the table and when I went to scan the painting there were red and green paw prints on it and some smeared peppers. Mostly, it was salvageable and once the top leaf is dry, (which I had to add over a kitty print,) I will probably be able to make it look a little better. Still, I feel very lucky and grateful for this current situation. Here is the pepper:

And a funny thing about the Anaheim that I learned from wikipedia is that it originated in New Mexico, but gets its name from Anaheim, California where Emillio Ortega brought the seeds in the early 1900's

Cossack Pineapple Ground Cherry

Here is an illustration of an interesting veggie, the Ground Cherry, in particular the variety sold by SESE called Cossack Pineapple:

I have never had the opportunity to taste on myself, but I would like to. They are aparently similar to tomatoes in firmness and strawberries in flavor and you can treat them like any other fruit: eat them raw, make jelly or jam, etc. SESE's cultural notes tell me that ground cherries have been cultivated in Central and South America for centuries, even before tomatoes, and that they have their name because the cherry-sized berries are borne near the ground.

Correction

Looks like when I was looking up info online about that White Icicle Radish I got confused. The White Icicle is not a Daikon, but a similar looking spring radish. Thank you Ira Wallace at SESE for the heads up. SESE sells seeds for both kinds of radishes, and in an earlier post from Sept. 27th you can see an illustration of Daikon, also called Myashige. Here is a bit from one website about the two:
There are two different types of Radishes; the spring Radish, which is commonly used in salads, and the Oriental [daikon] or winter Radish, which isn't as well known, but is becoming more popular.
Spring Radish (R. sativus) - This hardy annual loves cooler weather. It forms small rosettes of rough, dark green leaves and enlarged, edible roots. The foliage may be mixed and cooked with Turnip or Mustard Greens when it is young and tender. Young spring Radishes are ordinarily eaten raw, before they become pithy or pungent with age. There are several different kinds, which vary in color and shape. Some are oval, cylindrical, round, or tapered like an icicle. Each type has a wide range of colors; white, red, white and red, pink and white or a combination of white, rose and purple.
Winter Radish (R. sativus variety longipinnatus) - The winter Radish is also known as the Oriental Radish and Daikon. Winter Radishes aren't regularly grown in the U.S., although many of the old standby winter varieties have been grown for decades by experienced gardeners. The name comes from the practice of gathering the roots in the winter.
- taken from http://www.botany.com/raphanus.html

Here is an illustration of White Icicle Rashes:

***Please see correction in next post***
These are a variety of Daikon Radish, which are also called Chinese Radish, Oriental Radish, Japanese Radish, or White Radish. "Daikon is thought to have originated in the Mediterranean. It reached Japan, by way of China, about 2,000 years ago. Today, more land in Japan is devoted to the cultivation of daikon than any other vegetable. In one form or another, daikon appears at almost every Japanese meal. Its name is derived from the Japanese words dai (large) and kon (root)." -from http://www.bigoven.com/glossary/Daikon
Sakurajima daikon is the world's largest variety of daikon, confirmed by the Guiness Book of World Records. The biggest can be as heavy as 99 pounds!

Spaghetti Squash

Here is an illustration I did a few weeks ago in the midst of moving my mom into a new apartment, Spaghetti Squash:

An interesting fact about spaghetti squash: it is not a new world vegetable. It actually originated in China, which I learned from ehow here: http://www.ehow.com/facts_7342932_origin-spaghetti-squash_.html. This was a bit confusing to me since squash as a whole originated in the Americas, (in an area between Guatemala and Mexico), but after I thought about it, it makes sense that certain varieties originate elsewhere. Another variety of squash that was developed on another continent is zucchini, developed in Italy.

Greek Oregano

For the next few days I am going to have to post some older art ahead of time since I will be doing Thanksgiving with family on Friday and then heading down to Tennessee to live with 14 cats for four months, (that's right 1 more than 13 felines), and I am not sure that I will have computer access at first.
So here is the first pre-written post:
This illustration I did for SESE while I was in Crown Point, NY staying at a friend of a friend's cabin, (although I get to call him friend now), in exchange for a little work around the place. SESE's Greek Oregano seeds thank Odin Brudie for giving their future selves a place to be illustrated.

Here is a fun little paragraph about oregano's history from http://www.indepthinfo.com/oregano/history.shtml:

Oregano was first used by the Greeks. In their mythology the goddess Aphrodite invented the spice. Giving it to man to make his life happier. The word "oregano" is actually derived from the Greek phrase, "joy of the mountains". Just married couples were crowned with wreaths of it. It was also put on graves to give peace to departed spirits. Ancient Greek physicians discovered that the herb had beneficial effects and prescribed it for a variety of ailments. Hippocrates used it as well as its close cousin, marjoram as an antiseptic.