Say it with Vegetables

Product design

If you're tired of giving a bunch of flowers, why not try a gorgeous vegetable bouquet by recent Design Academy graduate Janina Loeve which comes with its own tasty recipe so you can even prepare it as a meal.

By Jeanne Tan / 24-11-2009

Most of us have forgotten that besides being chopped up bits that end up as side dishes, vegetables and herbs are actually beautiful plants and flowers. The huge variety of vegetables changes with the seasons, each with its own palette of stunning colours and smells.

Wanting to change the way we look at vegetables, recent Design Academy graduate Janina Loeve create the Divers bouquets composed from vegetables and herbs. Each bouquet is made according to the season, forming a delectable temptation for the eye, not to mention the pungent fragrance of the herbs. "The idea for the bouquets came up while I was doing research on the diversity of our menu", explains Loeve. "We've lost a lot of information on what plants are edible, even a lot of flowers used to belong on our dinner plates. Now we see flowers as being only beautiful and vegetables as being only edible. I wanted to show that using all qualities - beauty, smell and taste - they can enhance each other. The form of a bouquet makes people view plants as being aesthetic, while you can easily take it with you to make a dinner."

Additionally, a recipe is included with each bouquet, (printed on the textile wrapping of the bouquet) so not only can you enjoy the beauty of the bouquet, you can taste it too. So instead of saying 'I love you' with a bunch of flowers, an Artichoke, Celery and Lemon bouquet that can be prepared into a Carpaccio of Artichoke and Celery sounds like a pretty mouthwatering alternative.

The bouquets can be seen as part of the Talent exhibition showing at Designhuis, Eindhoven until 30 November 2009.