Being a fan of dark plants, I couldn't help noticing in the market over the weekend the number of interesting dark vegetables that were available. Of course there were the usual ones that I know- the eggplants and the purple potatoes but the bushels of purple beans and the crate of black radishes were newer. I'm sure I've seen black peppers before but they looked particularly interesting framed in this collection of vegetable noir, as did the dark leaves of these interesting greens.
An omelette with slices of purple potatoes smothered in lavender colored chive flower I had ealier this year reminded me how much the way something looks can elevate how it tastes. Similarly the burgundy okra was not the most succesful vegetable-couldn't harvest it regularly enough to avoid the large woody ones- but boy did it look stunning-including the flowers. It made the vegetable beds look really attractive.I imagine those purple beans would do an interesting job of that as would some unusually colored greens. Color is an interesting device to bring visual interest to the table as well as in the vegetable beds methinks as I start already to plan next years garden.
