On Saturday my wife and I stopped by the farmer’s market and stocked up on produce to make the fennel, apple, celery slaw on our Recipes page and I have to tell you, I love the color of fresh.

*For anyone who hasn’t visited a farmer’s market before, it’s quite enlightening to see the raw delivery of your food. Colors of every shade line the tables and carts, along with beautiful smells and abundant samplings. The polished glimmer and under-ripe crispness of store produce do surprisingly little justice to the beauty of what ends up on your table.

With that said, I want to take a quick minute to illustrate my point with an ingredient I typically don’t purchase. During our walk up and down the aisles of the market, one booth caught our eyes and was chock full of root vegetables and greens. On a whim, based almost exclusively on rich color and rarity in our diets, we picked up some farm fresh beets.

The level of beauty contained in those beets was beyond what we expected. Slicing into the firm flesh and peeling off the outer skin revealed a deep, rich, purplish red hue and incredible woodgrain-like pattern. Contrasting the vibrant root was the lively shades of green contained in the leaves that balanced the intensity of the core beet. The freshness we were hoping for when viewing the initial dark purple outer layer was amplified by the bright inner color staining the cutting board. Freshness – check!

As mentioned in our opening post, eating and dining is a total senses experience and the power of color can’t be underestimated. A picture is worth a thousand words, so don’t just take my word for it, check out the pic below.

Editors Note: The flavor of the beets was just as incredible. There was a sugary sweetness on the front of the tongue, with a subtle potato-like mineral flavor during the chew that finished with a mild bitterness.