Vinegartart

Are you a young chick? Or a mother hen?  Are you cock sure?  Where are you in the pecking order?  Do you work for chicken scratch?   Have your children flown the coop?  Are you an empty nester?  How many times have you used one of these phrases?  These catch phrases belong to our agrarian past – a time when every family had a small flock of chickens for meat and eggs.  Today most people think of chicken as something that comes on a Styrofoam tray, without skin and under plastic.  I am sure there are legions who believe “fingers” or “nuggets” can actually be located on a chicken.

Here at the Valentine Farm Home for Wayward Roosters and Chickens, Easter is a big deal.   At this time of year, chicks are being hatched out – spring chicken (another one of those phrases).  A hen can sit on a dozen eggs which is quite a bit of work and there will likely be eggs that don’t hatch out.  Which is why you should never count your chickens before they hatch. 

The history of decorating eggs is a long one and it is fun to do even if you’re not an eight year old.  There are five reasons egg decorating therapy is good for adults: –

• egg decorating takes us out of our day to day drudgery,  if only for an hour;
• egg decorating brings out our creativity – nothing says “creativity” like colouring eggs;
• no latent artistic talent is required.
• hard boiled eggs are darn good to eat and a very versatile lunch choice; and
• who doesn’t love devilled eggs?

So, quit your squawking and let’s get cracking.

I like to use hard boiled eggs rather than blowing the yolk and the white out of a small hole drilled in the bottom of the egg.  Blown eggs keep forever if you are interested in keeping your small, perfect artwork.  I am, however, just interested in enjoying hard boiled eggs.  My art is only temporary.

The easiest way to hard boil eggs is to put the eggs in a sauce pan and cover them with cold water.  Bring the water to a full rolling boil, turn the heat down to a simmer, cover and start timing for 6 minutes.  When the 6 minutes is up, lift the eggs out of the water with a strainer and plunge them into cold water to which you have added a tray of ice cubes.  This ensures that you do not get unsightly black or green yolks.

You will need food colouring, white vinegar and  boiling water.  For every cup of boiling water you will need 2 teaspoons of vinegar.  Add food colour drop by drop until the desired shade is reached.  I find one cup of boiling water to 2 teaspoons of vinegar works best as the egg can be totally submerged in a cup of water.  The vinegar helps set the colour.  Try and recall from your hazy kid hood which colours, when mixed together, give you purple. 

Elastic bands and crayons are simple decorating tools.  

Wrap elastic bands around the eggs.  Gently place in the colour of your choice. Gently move the egg around in the color to distribute colour around the egg.  Leave until you are satisfied with the colour.

Using a wax crayon, draw your incredibly creative design on the egg. Gently place in the colour of your choice.  The wax crayon resists the colour.

You can remove the elastic bands and when the egg is dry carefully place it into another colour to colour up the spaces left by the elastic band.

Use a combination of wax crayon resist and elastic bands.

Now, that you have worked as hard as a hen hauling wood, go and make yourself an egg salad sandwich.  Art is so fleeting.

What you accomplish with the recipes I share with you is what makes me eager to share more. Tell me how you are doing. Thank you for following.