COLORING EASTER EGGS

Hanging from tree limbs, nestled in pink, purple or blue grass, they defy the laws of nature and show up in the most unusual places this time of year.

Prominent shelving in grocery stores and gift shops is a given. They are a daily feature on dining room tables.

Children and grownups with fingers and hands stained vibrant hues are unquestioned, after all, what's Easter without a few home-colored Easter eggs.

Eggs have been a symbol of new life since the beginning of recorded history, according to "Holidays of Legend" by Mildred H. Arthur. As Christianity spread, the egg was adopted as a symbol of Christ's resurrection. Though how or why the tradition of coloring eggs began may be the stuff of legend, the practice remains strong in all corners of the world.

Bertha Haupt of Jackson, her daughters and grandchildren are among the millions who enjoy these traditions.

While egg coloring is an annual occurrence, and most children wouldn't let the adults in their lives get away with skipping the yearly project, there are ways of preparing eggs so that they can be enjoyed year after year.

"They look like artificial ones, no one believes they're eggs," Haupt said of the basketful of shiny, multi-color eggs in the center of her dining room table. She attributes the glassy look to a glaze she sprayed on the dyed, blown-out shells.

Blowing the yolks out of the shells, she said, most requires a hearty helping of determination. "It is very delicate and you have got to have patience," she said. "You blow till you're just about crazy almost," she said, chuckling and adding, "I cracked a few."

"You just have got to be determined that you are going to do it," she said.

Haupt tackled the project about five years ago, making a hole in each end of the eggs with a darning needle and then blowing out the insides. Then she dyed the more than two dozen eggs. They make a colorful centerpiece year after year.

Plus, noted Barbara Chenoweth, one of Haupt's daughters, eggs prepared in such a way are surprisingly tough. "We have a great big basket of them on the living room floor," Chenoweth said, explaining the eggs she prepared have survived hard knocks by rowdy youths.

Chenoweth sprayed varnish onto her blown-out-egg shells after dying them in creative fashion. She even designed plaid eggs using masking tape and several dippings into various dyes. Some of her blown-out-egg-shell Easter eggs are eight years old.

Besides preparing Easter Eggs nearing heirloom status, Chenoweth has also collected Hallmark Easter Eggs for her two children, Erica Vickery, 15, and Baret Vickery, 13, since their births.

Easter egg coloring is an annual ritual in Chenoweth's household. "I have never missed a year," Chenoweth said. "I still dye them but the kids could care less," she laughed.

But her sister's children still enjoy the annual rite. Haupt's daughter and Chenoweth's sister, Yvonne Friedrich, said her sons, Alex, who just turned 6, and Kent, who'll be 9 next week, wouldn't miss the fun.

Though purchasing Easter Egg dye may be the avenue most people take when coloring eggs, there are other, older ways.

Paula Gresham-Bequette of Cape Girardeau used each of those materials and more to color eggs one recent Easter. While bright results like those produced by store-bought dyes shouldn't be expected, "they all had their own character to them," she said of the eggs. Her favorite result came from using yellow onion skin.

Gresham-Bequette boiled the natural materials until the desired hue was reached, removed the dye from the heat and added vinegar.

When it comes to Easter and decorating eggs, kids like to do it, but adults like to too, said Janet Kline, nutrition/health education specialist with the University of Missouri Extension, Benton office. "There are all kinds of ways that people can have fun decorating them."

Beads, buttons, lace and fabric remnants lend all kinds of creative possibilities to egg decorating, Kline noted.

Regardless of how they are decorated, if the eggs are going to be eaten, there are safety issues involved. If hard-cooked eggs are going to be used as a centerpiece, don't even think about eating them, Kline said. As a general rule, eggs that are going to be eaten should not be left at room temperature for more than two hours.

For safety's sake, if hard-cooked eggs are dyed and used for Easter egg hunts, Kline said it's a good idea to use them solely for the fun and prepare a second batch for eating.

When preparing blown-out egg shells, "if you want to use the insides, you're going to have to be careful about what you put in there," Kline noted. If the yolk or egg white is going to be eaten, the needle used to poke the hole in the egg should be sterilized, she said.

TIPS FOR DYING EGGS WITH NATURAL MATERIALS

Washing eggs in mild detergent before dying them helps the dye adhere more evenly.

Tips for dying eggs with natural materials:

From "Eggcyclopedia," a publication of the American Egg Board

Eggs simmered in water to cover for 20 minutes with 1 tablespoon of white vinegar for each cup of water and your choice of materials below will produce a shade of the color shown. Use your own judgment about quantities.

Use these materials to get the following colors:

Fresh beets, cranberries, radishes, frozen raspberries for pinkish red

Yellow onion skins for orange

Orange or lemon peels, carrot tops, celery seed or ground cumin for delicate yellow

Ground tumeric for yellow

Spinach leaves for pale green

Yellow Delicious apple peels for green-gold

Canned blueberries or red cabbage leaves for blue

Strong brewed coffee for beige to brown

Dill seeds for brown-gold

Chili powder for brown-orange

Purple or red grape juice or beet juice for gray