Monday 2 January 2012

Beauty in the ordinary...

... or at least in the kitchen.

I wonder what sort of DNA you need to become so good-looking? Us humans have to suffice with shut-off cells which lets us know when to stop growing fingers, or when to start growing webs in between them, etc. but we tend to be constantly dissatisfied with our own personal cell-growth, hence all those adverts sent to some (not me, I've got a Mac - he said smugly) promising enhancement.

Christmas Cracker joke of 2011: How long are a heron's legs? Long enough to reach the ground.

Normally you need a microscope to observe spectacular cell-growth like this little cauliflower, and we would become extremely distraught if we found anything like this growing on us, but this little green vegetable looks good enough to eat - too good to eat, in fact. Spirals within spirals within spirals - where will it all end?

I remember a girl at my art school who was gobsmacked by seeing one of these in a greengrocer's (note the correct use of apostrophe, all you greengrocers) so she decided to cast it in plaster. The material she used for the negative was a hard 'Vinamould' which had a high melting temperature, so when she pulled the cauliflower from the mould, it was already cooked. Vinamould was so toxic, however, that she had to throw it away without eating it.

Sacrificed for Art.

12 comments:

  1. I have never seen a cauliflower like this....even when I lived in the UK....it's quite amazing all those spirals.

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  2. Waitrose sell them sometimes, Raz - at a price. Like I say, the first one I saw was about 40 years ago, so they are not a genetic mutant variety. They taste very good as well, so they're not just pretty.

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  3. I'm sure I heard somewhere that they are in fact just ordinary cauliflowers with a nasty virus. This was then worked on (by boffins), and a new F1 variety was developed.

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  4. There's more beauty in nature than anywhere else . It's so pretty that I wouldn't want to eat it !
    Wishing you and your family a Happy, Healthy and peaceful 2012. X

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  5. Jacqueline has never looked lovlier!

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  6. The only time I bought one of those green spirally things (have forgotten what they are called) there was a fat, green catterpillar nestling inside! But I do agree it is a work of art in itself. Another veg which I think fits into that category is a red cabbage when cut in half.

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  7. I heard a really interesting radio programme over the holiday Tom, about unravelling the Genome. Apparently all organic matter contains exactly the same chromosomes that do the same thing; but it's the matter that the chromosomes are suspended in that controls when and how the genes turn on and off that make you and me human, Miss Daisy (my grandpupy) a dog and your cauliflower (however odd) a cauliflower.
    At least thats all I could understand of what they were talking about.

    Thanks John...chartreuse always was my colour.

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  8. It looks like a cluster of green shells. I've never seen a cauli like that either. I never before thought of us all having shut-off cells at a certain point to stop us growing, but you're right - I just find it mind blowing

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  9. It's all right. It's gone again now.

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  10. I've never seen one of these in the UK ( but then again there's no Waitrose near me) but in Spain we ate them regularly!

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