"Haikus About Vegetables Rule—and Can Win a $55 Happy Girl Kitchen Feast for Free" by Food Blog

Sponsored by Kitchen Studio of Monterey Peninsula

Haikus About Vegetables Rule—and Can Win a $55 Happy Girl Kitchen Feast for Free

July 2, 2012

The idea is enough to keep me revved for months: produce poetry.

But before the ever-so-healthy haikus, a quick note: It seems a week doesn’t go by where the Food Blog or the Foodie Newsletter—email edible@mcweekly.com to sign up—doesn’t give away tickets to something tasty, like the Blues Festival a weekend back and its ribs, gumbo and fried catfish.

Here’s one of the winning “food blues” anthems from Arroyo Seco’s Aaron Thomas that earned two grounds passes:

Scrambling through forests/ head to the ground./ Fungi surrounding us,/
the feast did abound./ This season went late,/ fall winter spring it spanned,/ with boletus so great/ and chanterelles always at hand./ But now they’re all gone,/ with no more to be found,/ until the rains and sun,/ pop tasty treats from the ground./

I got those mushroom forager blues...

Now, with another mouthwatering, all-vegetarian, farm-driven Happy Girl Kitchen-Manresa Sous Chef Jacob Pilarski pop-up dinner Friday, July 6—salt roasted beets with rhubarb and strawberry, cannelloni beans with almond milk and roasted garlic, buttermilk biscuits with Big Sur honey and thyme, among other gloriously fresh Freewheelin' Farms fare—we've got another poetic showdown on our hands.

Veggie haiku with the most "likes" on the Weekly Facebook page takes a seat at the dinner, which runs $55, for free.

The contest ends Wednesday (July 4) at midnight so we can announce the winner Thursday morning and folks can still (hopefully) call 373-GIRL or visit www.happygirlkitchen.com for tickets.

Here are some of the beauties so far:

Save a cow or fowl/ Vegetables have more flavor/ We don't need no meat —Dan Galfano

Faces to the sun, / Toes stretched deep into the earth: / From two realms, our meal. —Ken Peterson

Earth, wind, water, sun / we are all one in the same / made from carbon, woooo. —Jeff Wurz

Then there are a few gems from the Weekly intern crew, who—lucky for you—aren't eligible to win:

photosynthesis/ plants work hard all on their own/ no pesticides please —Hillary Gibson

armored artichokes/ cabbages and beets make meals/ so central coast-sweet —Amanda Zeligs

What is up with Jeff Wurz's haiku? You can't just write a four syllable line and add "woooo" to compete it. Please disqualify him!!!! xDDDDDDD

Can't even see the post on the FB page link, but I can't let that stop inspiration, or Mark C. Anderson's vision of inspiring even more bad poetry into this world. I suppose we all have dreams.

Though chlorophyll fills | please add some hummus, pickles | mixed nuts and giggles