This time of year and the fruit and veg are looking good here. Lets see Fruit and Veg round the world.

Bother! I was at the market yesterday, but didn't take any photos...

New potatoes straight from the garden

Oh my, had completely forgotten about the theme - but that's perhaps because I'm either too dumb or too lazy to scroll down past what fits in my window LOL. Does anyone else think that the two-week theme should be "pinned" for the duration and then unpinned when a new one takes over? Most recent postings might be more obvious that way.

Anyhoo,

Chavs: I seriously think you were meant to be either an artist or a photographer, or both. You're starting to channel Ansel Adams now lol (what do you do for a living in "real life"?)

Christina: I'm envisioning a creamed dill/butter sauce with those. New taters are one of my favourite things. Pardon me while I drool LOL.

Ok, here's two things I picked before our horrible storms (with hail) last week:
(the peppers originate in Hungary and while they may look innocuous, they're really HOT lol) and tumbler tomatoes (had tons of them, gave most of them away to work colleagues)

Oh sorry all, If I forget to sticky anything please remind me. I really thought I had. Now I have!

Thanks Jake, very high praise that I cannot with all conscience accept, much as I'd like to lol! You can tell by the frame that I took my photo to an editing suite (Aviary) and pressed a button that made it look artistic (Concorde - makes light more light and dark more dark) - original here is a little less exciting! Even when turned to black and white.

But those chillies and tomatoes make great drama in a circle - and I am using a forum skin with a black background so they are even more dramatic - and that takes a lot more skill than a button press. In fact, you always provide superb photos - there's a peacock one somewhere that I adore - and I am constantly picking up tips from these threads. Will try some drama.

Just got one from Christina: grow your own potatoes, they not only taste nicer but look a lot nicer too! And a bowl makes a perfect frame.

Here are some of the prize winning goodies from the local fair last autumn.

Chavs: You are most kind and thank you : ) In the case of the apples, I normally ignore frames altogether (as I think they're better suited to fun/cool/popular hobby type things like scrapbooking and lovely handmade cards) and I just focus (pardon the pun) on what's inside when it comes to photography. But I'm weird that way lol. My digital cameras all have black/white options, so just assumed that's what you did. I must say that I rather liked your originals (so thanks for the links) and either one would have been great to post, as my compliment referred more to "content/arrangement" and "artistic eye" than anything else. I don't think you need to worry about "drama" either - your still-life compositions so far have been fabulous.

As a postscript for anyone who cares (and certainly not in reference to anyone's photos here LOL!), I once was a helper (aka "gofer") for a local photographer who mostly took photos for advertising purposes. The majority of his "jobs" were shoots regarding food. There are loads of "tricks" (that have absolutely nothing to do with a camera, or even photoediting software for that matter lol) to make things look better, especially in colour. In the case of apples and many other fruits, they'd have been liberally doused in lemon juice immediately upon slicing so that any browning wouldn't happen within the 5 minutes required to capture them, corn syrup would be added to certain dishes to make them "glisten", shoe polish would be painted on meats for that "perfectly grilled look", spray on deodorant on grapes to make them look icy, white glue instead of milk/ice cream etc ad nauseum. Is that "art"? Perhaps. Are you going to be disappointed when the food in the menu picture arrives at your table? Absolutely LOL!

SpanishLiz: How wonderful that folks in your area still have "fairs" - with judging and everything! We only have "farmer's markets" in this city, not nearly as much fun, sigh.

Thanks so much, Jake.

Boot polish on chops... Deodorant on grapes!!? lol, I am glad the food doesn't match the pictures now. I knew about the lemon juice but I wanted to eat the apple (and it was gorgeous) but those others are hilarious! I am going to have to try out the grape frosting trick...


SpanishLiz, what a perfect pic.

But what's the aubergine/eggplant competition? Seem like some are considerably bigger than others.

It's amazing what you can do with a cucumber these days! A novel way to display cheese and, of course, cucumber too. The "Princes" were very impressed!

Runner beans just starting to set

These were growing on a tree right beside where my sister and I parked in a small town in Vermont.

Roasted tomatoes, and a lot of steam escaping into the camera, grr.

Oh good, I can squeeze another one in!

Broad beans and runner beans fresh in from the garden

Thanks all New thread coming up tomorrow.