Monday, March 27, 2006

Perfect Postage


Today, J gifted me with a new book of stamps - the 2006 "Crops of the Americas" series, which feature chili peppers, beans, sunflowers, squashes, and maize. All of these are crops which had already been cultivated in North America for centuries before Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
To think I had almost gone to the deli for a roll of boring old flag stamps, when all along there was something out there really worth commemorating - food!

All Headline News brings us this fascinating tidbit: "It's the first taste of postal fame for corn, beans and squash. This is the third time sunflowers have appeared on a U.S. stamp. They were featured as the state flower of Kansas in 1982 and again in a set of wildflower stamps in 1992. Chili peppers appeared in a wreath in the 1998 Christmas stamps."

Steve Buchanan of Winstead, CT illustrated the stamps based on photographic slides taken by his wife, Rita Buchanan.

6 comments:

family harvey-groft said...

i gotta find some food stamps, too! flags are boring. and they make an interesting statement that i may not be prepared to make at all times.

also, you've got to tell me how you got your gnocchi to hold together when you boiled them...maybe i'm not using enough flour.

sailu said...

First time commenting here.Came in thru Susan's.Lovely blog and just love your write up at the "about me" section.

Sailaja
Sailus Food

Anonymous said...

cuteness! i might start eating my mail.

Anonymous said...

jahnna - yeah, i love the "food stamp" aspect of them, as well as the whole thing about local produce, etc. as for your gnocchi - you may have cooked them too long...i only cooked mine for a couple of minutes, just until they floated up. It did require a lot of flour, though - more than i anticipated.

I look forward to your new blog but enjoyed perusing your lj in the meantime =) Did I know that you were getting married? congratulations!

Sailu - thank you and welcome! I'm terrified of preparing indian food, so reading your blog will do me good. =)

thinkingwoman - be careful! most stamps aren't even lickable anymore, let alone digestible. ;)

Michelle said...

Oh, these are sooo cool...hmmm...I think I need to mail something today...

Glad the empanada party was such a success! Those are some wonderful pictures! I can't wait to start perusing my own Saveur...

Anonymous said...

How beautiful!

I just bought some new stamps today (Canadian) for some cards I'm sending overseas.

You have a great blog!