Sun Valley, Idaho (KMVT-TV) Photographer Paulette Phlipot of Sun Valley has loved to take pictures of fruit and vegetables for years. She graduated from the Western Academy of Photography In Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Phlipot met up with food writer Cheryl Sternman Rule, and the result was the Ripe Cookbook.

Phlipot says, "For each item in the book, say if it's celery, there's an art photo of celery, and there's a recipe that's featured, and there's a recipe photo. The recipe photos aren't as difficult, it probably does take a little bit of fussing or figuring out what napkin, what plate, to make sure all the ingredients are showing."

Phlipot says she'd start looking at the fruits and veggies, turning them around, and cutting into them to find unusual shapes in these ordinary foods. Sometimes she found what she was looking for right away, and other times it took a lot longer.

Phlipot says, "Sometimes I would cut into say, the cranberries, and instantly it was like, wow! This is the photo. I would go to the market, the farmers market and buy whatever it is I need to shoot. And I don't know ahead of time what I'm going to do."

Phlipot says most of the produce she took pictures of was grown right here in Idaho. To get the pictures, she didn't have to buy a whole case of apples, for example. In fact, the eggplant shown in the book is the only one that was at the farmer's market.

And once you see the pictures in the Ripe Cookbook, chances are good you'll never look at celery the same way again.

The book's cover price is $25. You can buy your copy from ripecookbook.com or p3images.com . They're also available at bookstores and grocery stores in the Wood River Valley.

July 10, 2012.