Trophies are a permanent fixture at the First Edition Cafe

My Trophy Produce has been hanging at the First Edition Cafe in the downtown OKC public library for about a year now.



I sold a handful of pieces throughout the year from that location, replacing those sold with new fun fruits and vegetables.



Recently, the cafe purchased all 14 remaining Trophies! They now have a permanent home there :)



Stop by and grab some deliciously healthy lunch there, won't you? It's a nice surprise to find a salad like this downtown (where everything seems to be fried or buttered):



They make the dressing there, which is super tasty, too!

Watermelon Trophy and some earrings on a whim

Today, I finished my finest Watermelon Trophy yet:



Also, some fun and simple vintage button cluster earrings:

April Fool's Day Sale

The internet may be full of farse today (I love that Google embraces it big time every year), but my 1-day sale ain't no joke!

Buy a Trophy Fruit or Vegetable from my etsy store today and save 25% using the coupon code TROPHYFOOL upon check out.





See them all in my shop!

What's new: Potato, Carrot and Grapefruit Trophies

New!



Russet Potato



Finally have another Carrot in stock (everyone loves the carrot)



Unrelated...a Grapefruit

Custom Watermelon

I must share photos of a custom order for the holidays:



Yes, it's a Trophy Watermelon...with a vanity plate for a Fruit Ninja Champeeeeen!



Find a trophy of your own in my etsy shop (or request something custom made!).

NEW Etsy shop for the new year

Click for my new Etsy shop for 2011!

Trophy Produce abounds. I plan to add hats soon!

Know your food

This year, I've focused my projects exclusively around the theme: Know your food!

The seeds (ha) of this series are my Fruit and Vegetable Trophies.


Trophy Cucumber

I dreamed these up about 3 years ago after reading a report that elementary age children in the UK weren't sure where basic foods originate. That article regrattable reminded me of the Regan-era
ketchup-is-a-vegetable proposal. Eating more wholesome food is now a hot-button issue in the United States, for sure. Reports, statistics, movies, TV shows, and books about agriculture and diet in the 21st century abound.
When I consider the corporate ownership and copywrite of seeds for crops, and that some U.S. doctors now write perscriptions for vegetables (essentially a farmers' market coupon) that maybe it's time to put fresh produce under glass at the natural history museum alongside a photo of the extinct Green Grocer.

Okay, that's some snide humor showing.

But in all seriousness, I feel like I preach to the choir when my trophies are featured in art shows or sales. I'd love to know if one makes its way on the wall of a classroom or cafeteria - a place where children or parents might look twice at the fact that a carrot has green leaves on top and a funny sounding latin name. (One of my favorite moments at a show in 2009 was when a couple of ladies got into a argument over whether or not my Endive Trophy really depicted an endive. Maybe I was trying to deceive them with bok choy!)
I hope that at least one of my trophies starts a conversation about food or science or politics...or what's for dinner!

I'll have about 20 Trophies available at the Deluxe
Indie Craft Bazaar on December 11, 2010.

Tomorrow, I get off my soap box and give a sneak peek of the fun food-themed jewelry I'll also have on hand!

Trophy Produce on display

My Trophy Produce is currently on display at the Oklahoma City downtown public library, in their First Edition Cafe.

I thought I'd share my official artist's statement that accompanies the set:

The motivation for a commemorative vegetable “Trophy” grew out of a news story from 2007 which reported that a group of school children in England weren’t sure “whether a carrot is grown in the ground or on a tree”. I then recalled the news from the early 1980’s that the USDA was directed to re-categorize ketchup and pickle relish from “condiment” to “vegetable” when it came to preparing public school lunches*. Currently, bottled juices, sauces, and processed snack crackers offer statements such as, “A full serving of vegetables [and/or fruit] in every cup!”** I have seen “salads” in restaurants which consist solely of a wedge of iceberg lettuce hiding under a pool of ranch dressing.

I feel increasingly more isolated when I think that eating a vegetable means it should look like a bright, vibrant vegetable – not a fish-shaped snack cracker (no wonder children don’t know where vegetables come from – cartoon fish are advertised as vegetable equivalents!) or a soda drink described as “Fruity”. Is a raw beet becoming a rare sighting? Will a spoon of high fructose corn syrup soon be considered a serving of grain?

For those of us who would like to honor and remember the age when fresh produce had an active presence in daily meals, I offer you my “Trophy Produce”. Each piece of Produce is labeled with both its common and Latin names, proudly mounted on a wooden plaque. I do take requests for some fruits and vegetables not on display here. I will also soon offer the option of displaying the piece under a bell jar, for the adventurous type looking for a curio-cabinet style piece.

-Megan Raley

*This move would have saved the government a projected $1billion by cutting a required serving of actual vegetables out of hot meals. Thankfully, this policy was never fully enacted.
**Thanks to a recent ad campaign for a popular brand of tomato sauce.

View the photo set

Etsy debate

As I'm about to have a rather busy few months in a row coming up, I'm torn as to whether or not I should restock my Etsy store or let it go dormant until August or so.



Perfect scenario would be a local cafe or shop would display/sell the fruit and veg trophies for a little while until the tumult of summer is past. I'm going to contact a few places this weekend any see if anyone is interested.

Fruit and Vegetable Trophies

It dawned on me that I have not exposed any of my new readers to the world of Trophy Fruit (and Vegetables).


More photos here on Flickr

Everyone loves the banana. Take that however you like. Insert double entendre here.


Eggplant is my personal favorite, though.

There are more more more in my store store store!