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Pittsford Blog


The palest of blues

Posted by • March 11, 2013 • 10:07 pm
Tagged , , ,

photo credit Donna De Palma

Imagine the palest of blues, pastel, sky blue, a robin’s egg blue. Eggs from Araucana chickens are pale blue naturally so when I read they would be for sale at a local Farmers’ Market last week, with Easter coming, I wanted a dozen of these organic, pastel eggs to photograph in my kitchen and later to whisk into a fluffy omelette or frittata.

Araucana are an unusual breed of chicken with tufts on both sides of the face. They’re a fluffy, speckled breed, with white and black feathers. Some varieties are white, some are chestnut brown. Araucana chickens originated in Chili, raised by Araucana Indians and, yes, they lay pale blue eggs.

Nature colors Araucana eggs blue, but dyeing eggs for Easter is a tradition that began centuries ago. Dyes made from vegetables like onions and beets, assorted flowers, teas, coffee and other natural dyes have been used to color eggs.

Some say the tradition of coloring eggs dates back to Persia when for Nowruz, eggs were colored and placed in a dish in the home to recognize the feast.

Christianity seems to have ‘borrowed’ the tradition and at Easter, eggs are etched, stenciled, waxed, painted, dipped and blown as decoration.

The smooth, oval shape makes for an appealing blank canvas.

There’s a long history of decorating and coloring eggs in Europe. Ukranians dyed eggs brilliant colors, often red, to symbolize Christ’s blood shed on the cross. They also batik eggs in the Ukraine.

Macedonians etched their eggs– applied wax then bleached off color– for a batik-like effect.

In Poland, they coiled rug yarn to create elaborate designs.

I’ll probably dip mine in an array of pastel colors this year then spatter them with a few spots of a brilliant ultramarine or an emerald green-—miniature watercolor field paintings in the round.

As for Araucana eggs: an unexpected hue gives me another reason to celebrate nature’s palette; so immense, and full of surprises.

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