I’m not a big believer in multitasking (which, in my experience, is doing a bunch of things simultaneously and badly.)

But there’s a lot going on at Clover right now, so I had to break my No Multitasking Rule on Wednesday. I asked Michele and Greg on our Finance team if they’d mind if I took myself off video during an Accounts Payable meeting. 

“I have to draw a cartoon Delicata Squash,” I explained, reasonably.

They generously agreed… perhaps with a bit of confusion. (Such is the beautiful tension between Finance and Marketing in any company!)

You see, on Wednesday Clover launched a new bowl into testing at our Longwood Medical Area location: The Winter Caesar!

And, as Clover always does when we move new offerings into testing, we needed to put up an eye-catching poster to collect customer feedback. 

Lucia would usually handle the illustration (loyal customers know her doodly Veggie Creatures well), but she was booked up. As a once-aspiring-cartoonist, I saw my chance and grabbed the Sharpie!

While the Creatures can seem simple enough, there’s a real art to it. My initial attempts at Grinning Delicatas ended up looking like Hot Dogs with an Attitude Problem. 

I changed tacks. I considered going for a couple of Brussels Sprouts dressed up like Gladiators (Caesar…Rome…Gladiators….you get it.) but I knew from hard past experience that my Brussels always look like roly-poly Cabbages.

Then I hit on it: why focus on one veggie when the bowl itself is actually a MEDLEY OF WINTER GOODIES? Delicata, brussels, radicchio, with crunchy chickpea croutons and a really savory white bean spread.

And thus, while Michele and Greg talked me through upcoming cheese deliveries, I was able to doodle out the be-wreathed, be-toga’d, be-bowled Emperor Veggie.

If customers at LMA dig it, you may soon be seeing him go head-to-head with King Brussels at a Clover near you.

In the meantime, I just have to say it plainly: it’s an amazing thing to work at a place where Excel spreadsheets can live side-by-side with Ancient Roman Veggie Doodles. I might be changing my tune on multitasking.