Ever since a woman walked into my friend's engagement party, a good twelve or thirteen years ago, with a butternut squash vase filled with red pepper flowers I have been dreaming of making something similar. Not to mention that I'd much rather spend time making a gorgeous spread of fruits and vegetables than decorating cakes and making little chocolates (which is now my daugher's territory, phew.) So at long last a young woman who has taken many lessons from the two expert fruit and vegetable carvers whose ads I had seen all these years, is teaching just a ten minute walk from my house, and perfect timing, (and a good lesson in "everything in its time!")
Why you ask? Well we have a Bar Mitzvah party right after Rosh HaShana, and since everyone (including my son, who matters the most of course) expects something really over the top from me, I thought I'd learn a little bit about vegetable and fruit carving and do something spectacular for the dessert table. You know spectacular but hopefully with lots of bang for the buck, namely those red pepper flowers I saw so many years ago will be perfect as they are quite large and rather quick to make so I have recently learned!
The arrangement seen above is something that we made in class last night, a sampler of different carved vegetable flowers, though missing the pieces that didn't quite turn out on account of well, cutting too deep and everything falling apart! All of these photos were taken right after class at my teacher's house, so they may not be the greatest quality, but I couldn't wait until the light of day as you can imagine......
This arrangement was made (by me) during the first class, a sampler of the most basic carved vegetable flowers, including those beet slice roses, which are truly interesting!
This arrangement was also made on the first night of class by a classmate that has some experience, and was the most confident, as you can see by her results! I never would have been brave enough to make those carrot flowers so tall, but it works!
Hope you've enjoyed this little glimpse of what I've been doing for the past few Wednesday nights! Next week I'll share with you some of the tools I have purchased and some of the tools I'm planning on purchasing. And one thing is for sure, you will never look at another vegetable again without wondering what you could make from it!
