Fruit Carving Video Review - Watermelon Flowers

I usually allot myself time each week to work on new fruit carving ideas or to practice advanced techniques but since breaking my arm I decided to use this time instead to flip through old fruit and vegetable garnishing books. Well, that lasted about a week, I mean I had already poured through all 8 of them several times in the past and if I were going to give the old noodle something interesting to look at, than it would have to be new! I chose a DVD by a woman who has been doing fruit carving for over 30 years. She studied Kae-Sa-Luk in Thailand under a teacher trained at the Royal Palace and she is considered a master of this ancient art.

I actually bought and watched several DVDs but now that my arm is healing, I plan to practice them and review them for my blog one at a time. So the first DVD I am reviewing is “The Art of Watermelon Carving”. Out of all the DVDs I purchased it is probably the most advanced, so what is the reason this one is reviewed first? Well, to be honest it is the one I was most excited to practice!

“The Art of Watermelon Carving” by Pam Maneeratana has 3 separate lessons all concentrating on different flower patterns; Chrysanthemum (or Mums), Rose Bud and Blooming Rose. Overall I enjoyed all three videos a lot! She shows you step by step how to complete each watermelon flower design. She shows each kind of cut slowly so you understand it and gradually starts do the cuts faster making sure to repeat each technique a couple of times. I have watched each lesson a couple times, the first time watching the entire lesson all the way through just sitting on my couch trying to pay attention to the tips she is giving and the way she holds her bird’s beak carving knife. Then, I would watch it again while carving, pausing and rewinding as I needed …. Ahhh, fruit carving videos are so much easier to learn from than their book counterparts!!

I really enjoyed this DVD and I am happy I purchased it but there are two things that you should keep in mind if you are considering buying this watermelon carving video. First, Pam really knows what she talking about but English is not her first language and there are one or two parts where she struggles to find the right words or when her accent makes it hard to understand her . Also, the Thai background music becomes a little much during a couple of parts (after the first viewing I just turned the sound down). But overall these two issues are not enough to make me enjoy the lessons any less!

Here is a picture of my first attempt at one of the lessons, "Blooming Rose". The lesson actually shows you how to make several of these on one watermelon but my melon was small and I already know how to make the rose bud but really wanted to practice the petals. Lots more pictures to come soon!

Fruit Carving Of Snoopy In A Edible Arrangement

This Snoopy fruit carving is made out of watermelon rind and is my first attempt at a carving since breaking my arm. It was a small piece that was added to a edible fruit arrangement to make it custom.

I am entering it in the April Create n Carve event, it is not a contest, just fun! To find out more info about this event click the photo below.

Fruit Flower Arrangement For Engagement Party

My cast is off and have started therapy for my broken arm, while it is hard for me to carve fruit, this edible arrangement was a little easier for me to manage until I can use my left arm! I was excited to do it because it I had never done a engagement design before and I thought it turned out nice!

Ice Carving Show On Food Network

Since I am unable to do any fruit carvings right now while recovering, I have been trying to stay creative and watch YouTube videos of other fruit carvings. I also found a couple DVDs I ordered of some advanced Thai style fruit carvings, I can't wait for them to get here! I also was pretty excited to see that the Food Network has a new show called "Ice Brigade" about ice carving. Since I was a kid I always thought carving ice was pretty cool and was happy to see a show about carving anything! I watched my first episode this weekend and was a little bit disappointed that they did not show a lot of the actual carving process or techniques. Now I only saw one of the shows and I am hoping that it was just that one show and that future episodes will show more. Has anyone else see on of these episodes? What did you think of the show?

It Is Hard To Carve Fruit With A Broken Arm

I have a pretty good excuse to why I have not updated my blog or made any new videos as of late ... I broke my arm :(

I am healing and hopefully will be back to carving fruit soon!

Fruit Carving Ideas For Valentine's Day

I have two new videos that are quick and easy ideas for Valentine's Day or any romantic dinner:

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Roses

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J0TnOFyboU

Vegetable Garnishes For A Romantic Salad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT2LOjx5wgo

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Fruit Carving and Vegetable Arrangement Photos

Just a photo slide show I uploaded to YouTube with some recent pictures of fruit carvings and edible arrangements that you may remember seeing on here.

Hope it inspires you!

Fruit Carving Books on Kindle

Amazon has lots of fruit carving books but I thought it was interesting that they started offering some on Kindle. I think this is a great idea, very easy to have your Kindle next to you in the kitchen to refer to! Check it out here: Kindle Fruit Carving Books

My Entry For Create N Carve - Fruit and Veg Event

Last month I heard about this event but because of the holiday crazies I never entered any of my vegetable or fruit carvings ... come to find out, this event is being hosted on a different blog each month. It is not a contest because their is no judging, it just a friendly event in which you try new things and get better.

Learn more at the event host's blog:

http://www.givemesomespice.com/2011/01/event-announcement-create-and-carve.html

Or learn more about the entire event:

http://simplysensationalfood.blogspot.com/p/simplyfood-events.html

My entry:

"Very Edible Christmas Tree Arrangement"

 

I cut the stem of the broccoli pieces at an angle like a wedge.

 

I used a craft store foam cone, left it in it's wrapper and added a layer of plastic wrap. The broccoli was secured in by toothpicks on the bottom row and then I just slide the next couple of rows in behind the last row.

I only put in toothpicks every couple rows just to hold it together.



For the garland I used carrot curls that I cut to size.

 

I secured the carrot garland with toothpicks, I left the ends of the toothpicks exposed and then added my cherry tomatoes to the exposed ends.

Simple cucumber flower with radish center.



I love using mini bell peppers as flowers, very colorful and simple. Just quarter the pepper down to the stem base taking care not to cut through and cut the membrane out that keeps the peppers shape.

Keep all your veggie flowers in ice cold water so they will start to open and curl like flowers.



Use green onion (just the dark green straw part) to make the wood skewer look more like flower stems.

Edible Vegetable Arrangement Christmas Tree

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Have more pictures of this broccoli Christmas tree with edible veggie flowers coming soon.

Simple Vegetable Platter With Veggie Flowers

This was a small and simple vegetable platter I made for a dinner using the extra veggies I had left in my fridge from the large Thanksgiving vegetable arrangement I made!

Vegetable Carving - Edible Veggie Flower Bouquet

This is a closer picture of my edible vegetable arrangement I made for our holiday party so you can see the details better!

Vegetable Flower Arrangement

This is a "crudite" or raw vegetable arrangement that looks like a flower arrangement that I made as the main appetizer for Thanksgiving dinner. I used a separate platter to hold the dip in a hollowed-out orange sweet pepper as well as olives and other veggies.

Halloween Pumpkin Carving

This was my Halloween pumpkin carving, it is definitely not my best work but I am still proud of it. I tried a couple new techniques and did not finish my drawing out my stencil until right before carving my pumpkin, so the whole project was a bit rushed.

I did the stencil myself with a little help from my printer/scanner/copier and I used a tip I saw online that used cornstarch (or flour) to make the tiny stencil guide holes easier to see. Now the tip did as advertised, making the holes easier to see but I had to take more care to make sure all traces of the white powder where gone.

If you look at my stencil, you can see that there is a bat hanging off of a tree branch right in the middle of the pumpkin carving stencil ..... poor planning, my branch was to thin and the bat too big, they did not make it.

Pumpkin Carving

Helped my niece carve this pumkin, she did most of the work including 95% of the cutting!