'Taste the bern': Bernie Sanders' legendary meme is now a salad

Bernie Sanders is so cute, you could just eat him up! Now, literally, thanks to a 'Bernie Sanders salad' made from vegetables! While the Senator from Vermont couldn't become President, he stole the limelight on Biden's inauguration day as he sat socially-distanced, with his arms folded in to weather the cold. The image of Bernie Sanders sitting alone wearing a cute pair of mittens resonated with many and soon turned into a meme storm, that's frankly been one of the high points on the internet of an otherwise traumatic year. It has been nearly two months since the Bernie meme debuted but it's not going anywhere. The meme made a comeback this week as writer Stephen King shared an image of the meme made from edible items. The writer credited food artist Sandra Marshall for creating the meme with the help of vegetables. 

Sandra Marshall didn't really have anything in mind but when she looked at the vegetables in front of her, Bernie's image formed in her mind. "I opened up my fridge and...I had these little potatoes, and I said, "That's Bernie's head!" and then I had a piece of cauliflower so...I used it for a little mask," said Marshall, reported Fox 10. "It was just the dinner ingredients I had planned." Sandra Marshall is excited about all the recognition her work is getting. “I can't tell you how much this means to me, especially because I have a children's book of my food art coming out in the next couple of months," said Marshall, reported Mashable.  

"I thought, this is Bernie, this is Bernie right here!" said Marshall, reported AZ family. "I just put him together, and little did I know, it was going to take off like it did." She posted the image of a 'Bernie salad' on her Facebook page before debuting on Twitter with an image of edible Bernie. The image found its way to writer Stephen King who shared it. In no time, the image went viral across platforms. "Bernie went out to over 3 million people just on Facebook. That is a lot of people," said Marshall. The food artist was flooded with positive messages, with one writing, "Bernie Sanders, a dish best served cold." Another added, "Taste the Bern."

While Bernie Sanders was just isolating from the crowd and trying to beat the cold, the image of him perched on that chair has already found its place in the annals of meme history. While many were picking out their clothes from fashion lines, Bernie's now immortal mittens were handmade by Jen Ellis, a Vermont schoolteacher who made them out of recycled material. She had gifted him a pair but never did she think he'd wear it to the inauguration. "When [Sanders] wore them to the inauguration, I was just blown away," Ellis told CBS News.  "I mean, people wear famous fashion designers to the inauguration, and there was Bernie, wearing mittens that I made, you know, in my craft room, with a sewing machine that my mother gave to me when I was 12."

The Vermont Senator laughed about it, but then turned it into an opportunity to help others. His campaign produced merchandise from the meme to raise money for charities across Vermont. The Senator managed to raise $1.8 million for charity and that says everything about the man himself. Fans just couldn't get enough of the merchandise, including t-shirts and hoodies, and they were selling like hotcakes. Proceeds from the sales were donated directly to a variety of charities in Vermont, including Area Agencies on Aging, Vermont Parent Child Network, Senior Centers in Vermont, and Bistate Primary Care, amongst others.

Bernie thanked all those who enjoyed the meme but above that thanked them for enabling him to help people. "Jane and I were amazed by all the creativity shown by so many people over the last week, and we're glad we can use my internet fame to help Vermonters in need," said Sanders, reported CBS News. Even in a light moment, Bernie had his mind on bigger issues. "But even this amount of money is no substitute for action by Congress, and I will be doing everything I can in Washington to make sure working people in Vermont and across the country get the relief they need in the middle of the worst crisis we've faced since the Great Depression," said Bernie Sanders.

You can check out some of Sandra Marshall's other brilliant artwork here.