Sea Beans & Rainbow Roses

As a vegetarian, I sometimes get asked, “No meat? Then what do you eat?”  What–like there aren’t enough great vegetables in the world to keep us busy? Earlier today, wide-eyed in the Seattle Farmers’ Market, I found further evidence to prove produce can wow any palate, 365 days of the year.  Dude: check it out.  Sea beans! Sea beans–Salicornia–are a crunchy, salty treat atop a salad or tempura-fried.  As I snacked on a few raw ones (at $15 a pound, it was nice to grab a few freebies!), I got the scoop.  Apparently a marsh-growing plant, Salicornia europaea loves saline environments (hence the heavy salty flavor).  However, Sea Beans are neither of the sea nor beans, but the young stem of a low little shrub.  Forgiving their misnomer, they are well-worth a try. Who knows–they might be this year’s fiddle head fern. 

In other news, vegetables are the only plants that floored me.  If anyone has ideas on how to make a Rainbow Rose, let’s talk. At $10 a stem and astounding in a garish, can’t-look-can’t-look-away (think David Bowie in the white catsuit in The Labyrinth) style of romanticism, I found myself both endeared to and horrified by these flowers.