Comments on: Easter eggs

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:26:38 +0000

David – Good suggestions. I don’t believe we tried any of those, but I know we experimented with some others – can’t remember which.

marlyat2 – You wrap them before placing in the pot.

It’s hard for me now to think about chickens in any cosmic sense without picturing a Gary Larson cartoon.

By: marlyat2

marlyat2 — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:13:54 +0000

Hmm.

Never wrapped that kind of dyed egg with evergreen ferns or veiny leaves. You did it right after pulling them from the pot? Or wrapped them up and placed them in the pot? Sounds like a thing to try with my children.

Oh, the persistence of our wonderings at chickens who cross the road…

“Chickens loom large.”

By: David Harmon

David Harmon — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 01:17:35 +0000

Other classic natural dyes besides onionskin: Beets (magenta/purple), and annatto/achiote (bright red-orange). There’s probably some way to get the green from some cooperative plant to dye, but I don’t know it offhand. Blue is famously a toughie, unless you have access to woad (or funky chickens). (Blueberry juice might work….)

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:27:48 +0000

Thanks, all. The poem was a wee bit prosier than I’d prefer, but in the end it did strike me as a poem rather than an essay. Anyway, I’m glad this resonated with folks.

Re: Araucanas, yes, named for the Indian tribe. But I found from Wikipedia that the birds we called Araucanas were actually probably fromthe unrelated Americauna breed, if not simply plain old Easter Eggers – the generic name for any chicken with the recessive gene for blue or green eggs. Ours were thoroughly interbred with the bantams, of which we always had a small number in addition to the main flock of Black Beauties.

Re: chickens crossing the road, we never went faster than ten MPH on our one-lane dirt road, so I don’t think we ever actually killed any chickens, but it was weird the way a vehicle’s approach would trigger a panicked reaction to race across the road in front of it.

Re: natural egg dying, if you want to try it, be sure to Google around first. I don’t think I’ve gotten any of the details wrong, but there’s probably a bit more to it than what I wrote. My memory is slightly porous. :)

By: chicklegirl

chicklegirl — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:15:53 +0000

I loved the descriptions of what makes eggs laid by you own chickens so special, so different from the kind at the store: the colored shells, the different yolks–and the chickens running out into the road!

By: Jo

Jo — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 06:56:38 +0000

Lovely, Dave, really lovely……..I envy you the childhood you describe, mine was so suburban, though still great fun. I might try the egg trick with my boys.

By: joan

joan — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:34:32 +0000

Although most of our egg coloring experiences involved the pre-packaged gaudy egg dye pellets, I do remember one year wrapping eggs in actual onion skins in some manner which made a neat yellow brown pattern. What a unique childhood you must have had. Thank you for sharing.

By: David Harmon

David Harmon — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:07:41 +0000

Christine: I googled them and got this Scottish site: http://www.araucanas.co.uk/

According to them the type is originally from the Arauca Indians of Northern Chile. They also have pictures… and much grumbling about the carelessness of “modern breeders”. ;-)

Dave: “madly flapping in front of oncoming cars, to cross the road.”

Did you lose a lot of them that way? ;-)

By: gautami tripathy

gautami tripathy — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 02:35:13 +0000

As I do not know much about Easter eggs, I liked the descriptions very much. You made all of it come alive for me.

As always, it was sheer pleasure to read you.

By: Christine

Christine — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:51:23 +0000

When I first saw the photo I thought, ‘how the heck did that giant egg get in that nest?’

I enjoyed your memories of dying eggs, the Araucana hens, the description of the cooked eggs, the colors, the tastes.

BTW, I’ve always associated the word Araucana with an indiginous tribe in South America. Were the hens from SA? Just curious.