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.
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
