Not a Typical Food Blog

I admit, I am an impulse grocery shopper. I generally despise shopping, but when I'm walking the isles at the local grocery store, it's different. I love it. I buy pretty much whatever I feel like with no guilt. The only thing better than shopping for dinner at my local Cub Foods is shopping for diner at my local farmers' market. Tim and I headed to the St. Paul Farmer's Market on a Saturday morning and we bought the most interesting vegetables we could find, but the goal was not to eat them, we wanted to photograph them. We went home and set up a studio by our bow window to utilize as much natural light as possible. It was a nice overcast day and the window provided us with very soft side lighting. It was actually very dark in the room...that's why we're glad they invented the tripod. With a stable platform for the camera and a subject that doesn't move you can shoot as slow as you want. So we shot with a high ISO and very looooong shutter speeds. The average was .25-3 seconds. This process is made all the more easy by the use of an infared shutter release so we didn't have to worry about shaking the camera when depressing the shutter release button on the camera.

If you're in the area look for this series of photos to appear at Ingredients Cafe soon!


mmm... Minnesota sweet corn.


I know shallots are just fancy onions, but something about them just makes my mouth water...they go well with just about everything except ice cream, orange juice and pancakes (and I could probably be convinced to try them with pancakes)


I've never eaten a carnival squash, but if it tastes half as good as it looks then I'll be happy.


These are Thai eggplant...a very curious vegetable. Apparently they're a key ingredient in Thai curries, but aren't very good on their own. Unlike Japanese or European eggplant they are bitter and have a little spicy heat to them. To be honest I never did fiure out how to cook with them, but they were sure fun to photograph.


Yes these did taste as fresh and crunchy as they look.


It's just like normal cauliflower, but more fun.


Oh man...this was a great conversation piece. To give you an idea of scale, this cabbage was as big around as a hubcap and so beautiful. According to the farmer they already came with modeling experience as they were photographed earlier this same day. It had the same effect as walking a dog. People kept on coming up to us and complimenting us on the gorgeous vegetable, asking us questions about it, talking about how we were going to photograph it, etc. The moral of the story is that if you find yourself in a new town and want to make friends fast you need to either find a dog, a baby, or a huge cabbage.

This post is inspired by my very good friend Rachael and her delicious food blog.