Picture Perfect Plants

   

     Let the record reflect...
     Seldom does the produce you purchase at the grocery look as perfect when coming straight off the vine...There are things used to up its color, keep it from wilting...keep it perky ~
     It was one of the bigger gardening lessons I learned (though I must say, it comes with a big reward as the flavor far outweighs the look of things) as plants from your real garden most often (like the rest of us who aren't airbrushed in real life) have flaws born out of having survived life and elements...
     One learns this especially much when photographing straight from your garden or your oven for a cookbook's page. You have ways of cutting around, turning it over...i.e. "circumventing" the more natural blemishes of what happens to a plant between planting and plucking. At the end of the day, there will be flaws, thanks to dirt, bugs, birds, nature..."life" ~
     But I have to say, for once in my life,  I walked out into my garden and pluck the most picture perfect, absolutely gorgeous and (dare I say) flawless veggie I'd ever seen... A plant whose seeds were given to me as a gift (something I'm learning to cherish more by the minute, especially from folks who've been doing this for longer than I've been alive)...and a plant I barely know how to prepare short of steaming it, olive-oiling-it and (as every Southern girl is taught to do early on) "casseroling" it (Ok. I can't believe my computer didn't spell check away my attempt at making a verb out of casserole, but I guess I've done this long enough my own spell check has learned not to fight me anymore.)
     Ladies and gents, I give to you, the Spaghetti Squash...Otherwise known as Calabash ~ A first for me in my little garden, but a plant I dare say I'll be sharing for the rest of the season (as I tend to over plant, and under calculate just how many little squashes one plant can yield... (So far, it would appear, "quite a lot"~)
     A keeper for the next cookbook for sure~ For now, I'm off to see if it really comes out resembling spaghetti after I cook it~ (Gonna nuke one; boil one; bake one...heck, who knows...Will report back~)
     All I can say is, if it's as tasty on the inside as it's looking on the outside, well, I could possibly learn to become a vegetarian after all... (But don't commit me quite yet.)