Morningstar Farms® is the organic face of the Kellogg Company, makers of Froot Loops and Pop-Tarts. They recently held a contest, for which it asked consumers to arrange vegetables a la Giuseppe Arcimboldo into whimsical forms. The prize was $10,600. But then, just like a persimmon left in the fridge too long, the contest started to give off the odor of decay.

Soon enough, angry vegetarian vegetable arrangers were clamoring at the gates, hurling insults like kumquats and invectives like carambolas. As per this weekend's Times: "What's up with the contest? Are they still accepting entries?," one person wrote on the contest's MySpace page on Aug. 22. "Either management is hiding something again or the contest has been extended." Conspiracy!

Turns out, Morningstar had a tough time with finding a winner. Thousands hundreds okay, tens of contestants were strung along by hopes of claiming the prize.

Defending the company's imperiled honor, Morningstar spokesperson Thuy-An Wilkins said, "The first winner was ineligible because she wasn't a United States citizen." The second and third winners bagged out too.

But a big congratulations, nonetheless, to recipe winner Karen Gulkin. Not that she's much of a vegetarian. She also won the grand prize this year in the Pilgrim's Pride Corporation chicken contest for her Tortilla-Crusted Chicken Rellenos with Cilantro Sauce! MURDERER.