Veggy_Boy and the Spring Vegetable Gang

Here is the Valiant Veggy_Boy leading the Spring Vegetable Gang out of the garden in an attempt to infiltrate the plates of Neopia. * devious chuckle * We SHALL help Neopets get their 5-a-Day in an enjoyable way!!

Gang Members:
Leader: Veggy_Boy the Asparagus Chia
Second in Command: Veggy_Girl the Pea Chia
Cohorts: Radical Radish, Lettice Lettuce, and the other peas in Veggy_Girl's pod

Notes on technique: The vegetables were made of colored copier paper drawn with markers & highlighters, and then cut out. I drew the farm background with markers, then attached the separate pieces for each of the crusading vegetables. In person, this gives it a nice 3-d look.

The Story

One fine spring morning, with the sap stirring wildly within him, Veggy_Boy poked his stalks firmly out of the rich garden earth and looked around. Up and down the garden row, he saw asparagus shoots emerging from the soil. In nearby rows were leaf lettuces, spinach, and scallions. As the sun's warm rays dried the dew from his cheeks, he pulled himself out of the dirt, shook himself off, and strolled around the farm. He found the tender seedlings of many vegetables that would grow and ripen later in the summer, but he also found early peas, plump spicy radishes, succulent herbs, and a variety of leafy greens ready for harvest. Birdsong filled the air, and a warm breeze helped the leaves make gentle whispering sounds.

Children ran into the garden with their parents trailing behind. They carried baskets and bags, knives and scissors. Little jubjubs and zafaras scurried throughout the farm, calling excitedly to each other as they spotted colorful bugs in the gardens. But their excitement seemed to be stronger when checking the progress of the strawberry plants and raspberry bushes than it was for the rows of slender asparagus stalks or the greens with odd-sounding names like Pak Choi. As Veggy_Boy watched, he noticed that one shoyru child was unwrapping a chocolate bar for a snack, and a young grarrl was crunching up a stone he'd found, although they were right in the middle of all those delicious and healthy veggies!

As the parents harvested fresh food for their tables, and coaxed their children to join in, Veggy_Boy saw some of the children become excited about these healthy foods. They tasted the sweet, crisp pods of the early peas. They crunched into a dark pink radish. They helped pull out some little carrots that were crowding together to closely, and were enchanted at these tiny little vegetables. The families made plans together for using these vegetables in their dinners. They talked about salads, soups, and stir-fries. They picked some chamomile and mint, and talked about brewing fresh herb teas.

After the crowds had gone, the garden seemed quiet. Veggy_Boy walked around about, enjoying the peace and thinking about what had happened. He met several other vegetables on his way - Veggy_Girl the Pea Chia and the other peas in her pod, Lettice Lettuce, and Radical Radish. They talked about the families that had come to pick their vegetables and agreed that they wanted to do all they could to bring the message of healthy, fresh, local foods to all the peoples of Neopia. So they drew up plans to publicize vegetables - they would try to get Neopians to create vegetable galleries, adopt vegetable pets, write poems, draw pictures, and get the word out in many other ways.

This petpage is one of their first efforts.

Fun Facts about Asparagus and other Veggies

Asparagus is a favorite food of Adam, one of the Neopets founders. On his birthday, Borovan Day (the 20th of Celebrating), the Advent Calendar often gives out Asparagus items, and new Asparagus items are released. Also, sometimes all neopets turn into Asparagus Chias for the day.
Asparagus grows from a "crown" which is about a foot underground. The part we eat is the shoot which first comes up in the spring. We don't pick all of the shoots. The unpicked ones unfurl into ferny plants which get red berries and store energy into the underground crown so it can sprout again the next spring.
National Asparagus Month is May (in the USA). That month is also National Salad Month, National Strawberry Month, and National Salsa Month so it's a great month for vegetables!
Asparagus Day is May 24 and National Eat Your Vegetables Day is June 17.
Asparagus is really healthy! It's high in Folic Acid and is a good source of potassium, fiber, vitamin B6, vitamins A and C, and thiamin. It has no Fat and no Cholesterol and is low in Sodium.
Many people find that after eating asparagus, their waste has a funny smell for a day or two. Doctors and scientists have studied this, and it's not harmful.
There's an Asparagus Festival every year on the last full weekend in April. It takes place in Stockton, California, and their featured food is deep-fried asparagus!
Nutrition experts recommend that most people eat at least 4 or 5 servings of vegetables and fruits each day.
Different colors of vegetables and fruits tend to have different concentrations of vitamins, so include a rainbow of vegetables for the best nutrition.
The advertising slogan "5-a-day" has given way to a new slogan, "More Matters". These slogans come from the "Produce for Better Health Foundation".

Poetry Corner

ASPARAGUS by Hobbittsy

A - Adam's favorite,
A - So nutritious!
P - Perenial vegetable
A - Always delicious!
R - Recipes simple
A - And ambitious
G - Grate it, steam it
U - Under the broiler
S - So auspicious!

Note: Auspicious means lucky or good!

What's in a name? by Hobbittsy

A rose by any other name
We're told would smell as sweet
But what about the vegetables
That we all love to eat?

Zucchini is one name you know
for summer squash of green
Courgette is yet another name
For marrows of this mien

An eggplant dressed in purple clothes
Has brothers white and yellow
And aubergine's a fancier word
For all these tasty fellows

A brinjal or a garden egg
Would make a tasty treat
Or try mad apples where they grow
On eggplant bushes sweet

Asparagus has just one name
That I have ever heard
And my taste buds do sure approve
No matter what the word

Veggy_Boy's Background & Plans

Veggy_Boy has his roots (quite literally) in his owner Hobbittsy's love for asparagus and for healthy foods. She belongs to a cooperative farm and looks forward every spring to tasting the asparagus which is usually part of the first distributions of (non-intelligent) vegetables. Hobbittsy began her vegetable collecting on Neopets by creating a gallery of peas and then added asparagus and peanut sections. That Pea & Asparagus Gallery has a little blog at the front with some interesting facts about the vegetables in it. Hobbittsy later moved that gallery to a side account Sweet__Peas so that she could create a larger gallery of vegetables and vegetarian foods.

Nurtured by his older sister Veggy_Girl and surrounded by a loving extended family of diverse pets, Veggy_Boy grew into a healthy, vitamin-filled chia. Why, he wondered, weren't all Neopets aware of the healthy and tasty ways of vegetables? So he set out to educate them!

After putting together this educational and fun petpage, his first stop was the Beauty Contest where he took a silver medal in species, coming in 6th overall. As his journey continues, he will update this space with more information. Future plans for Vegetable Mania may include:

Adding more to this petpage:
- recipes
- more poems
- more veggie facts
- riddles
Having Veggy_Girl enter the Beauty Contest also
Spiffing up Hobbittsy's galleries for the Gallery Spotlight
Entering this page into the Site Spotlight
Entering some veggy poems in the Poetry Contest
Creating a vegetable garden in hobbittsy's neohome

Veggy_Boy's Family Members

The friendly and diverse family of Veggy_Boy includes:

BitsyBoy555: Maraquan Scorchio and keeper of Hobbittsy's General FAQ page
Akaunts: Sketch Kau and keeper of the Accounts FAQ
Veggy_Girl: Pea Chia, friendly and supportive older sister
Ziozze: is a pumpkin which grows in the autumn but our spring veggies love their pie-making cousin!
Zenkuu: Disco Cybunny, a sibling who is planning to host a Zen-themed page eventually
Burning_Bloom: is a bit risky for the veggies to get too close to, for fear of being roasted! They love him from a distance.
jagged_ambition: is also a bit scary for the veggies - he has big, sharp teeth! But they know he's really friendly (and mainly carnivorous).