42—Lancaster Farming. Saturday. Oct. 25, 1975
New Holland
poultry - egg
When Kenneth Kuipen suggested to his wife Dona that
she design a coloring book about eggs, she took up the
challenge and just three weeks ago had the thrill of seeing
her first coloring book come off the press.
The book, entitled "The Chicken and the Incredible
Edible Egg" is educational fare for youngsters and their
mothers alike, containing a wealth of information about
the egg.
Dona Kuipers, New Holland, said the project got started
when her husband “made the statement ‘you
ought to do a coloring book,’ " She said, “Our minds
clicked and the project got started.
“It was just an idea, but the more invloved we got the
more enthused we both got. The more we got to thinking,
the more we realized that it really was possible."
One of the reasons they became inspired to immortalize
the egg in art form is that Kuipers, a Michigan native, has
long been associated with the poultry industry. For 19
years he was a salesman for poultry equipment and for
the past seven years he has been selling the plastic car
tons in which eggs are packed.
Through their work with the industry, Dona said, they
picked up much “beautiful literature about eggs,” but
nothing aimed at educating children about the benefits of
eggs.
One of her purposes, she says, is to get across “the way I
feel about eggs. They are a good natural food. I want to
give the true facts - that eggs are high in protein. Eggs are
a better food than most people give them credit for."
So an educational format was chosen - as well as a fun
one. Dona decided to do poems to tell the kids the story
and have a factual story to tell the mother about the
nutrition. In for foreward, it states; “While the
illustrations and poems in this book are created for
children, the facts of the egg processing are truly
represented.”
Dona adds, “It is something we feel the housewife is
getting her money’s worth, and it is fun for the kids.”
The finished product is an 11 x 16 inch book, with 48
pages. But that was not what she thought it would be
originally. At first Dona prepared art for a much larger
coloring book. But it was soon discovered that such a large
book would be unweidly and “the supermarkets wouldn’t
Distributing the coloring books is the next step
for Dona Kuipers, who has been mailing the books
far and wide to interested organizations.
Country Corner
That chicken just ‘ain’t’ what it used to be . .
By Melissa Piper
While attending the NEPPCO (poultry
producers) convention on Wednesday of this past
week, I couldn’t help overhearing a woman telling
her friends about the great new taste and quality of
chicken these days
The woman, who had traveled from New York,
told her friends how hard it had been a few years
ago to cook those “dumb birds” “Now,” she ex
plained, “they’re so tender and cook up so well you
have to rearrange all your cooking times ”
Not only was the woman appreciative of the
better quality but also the relatively inexpensive
price of the meat
While a convention meeting is hardly the place to
cross sample the consumer’s attitudes toward
agricultural products, the conversations did relate
the fact that people are beginning to notice that
here in the United States, the food is improving and
at a relatively low cost (despite consumer beliefs)
It is a well known fact that in the United States
we have a great variety of food from which to
choose and in almost every conceivable form - from
by Sally Bair
Feature Writer
artist designs
coloring book
want to bothf r witn it and the housewife wouldn’t pay the
price of a really large coloring book."
So they scaled down the book until it "handled easier. It
is big enough to by eye-catching, and it can be sold at a
reasonable price." The suggested retail price if $1.49.
From the professional appearance of the coloring book,
one could never guess that Dona has had no formal ex
perience or education in art. She said, “I had no training,
but I always loved to draw. As the mother of three
children," she said, “I loved kid’s books, and over the
years I have bought millions of coloring books! I just
stumbled through the book on my own.”
After the decision was made to tackle the job, Dona
made many discoveries. “Just to make the book about the
egg would have been dull." So she deicded to add the
chicken to her story. That too, presented a problem, ac
cording to Dona, because in the end, "You couldn’t put her
in the stew!;;
Dona first wrote the poems, then worked with her
husband on the narrative for accuracy. “Doing the
poems," Dona said, "Is the really fun part. You must use
simple words." Another discovery she made was that
there are very few words which rhyme with egg.
Doing the sketches “isn’t a problem,” she said, despite
her lack of formal training. “I worked eight or ten or
twelve hours a day for three weeks. And sometimes I
would have to do five or six sketches to get just the ex
pression I wanted."
The illustrations for coloring are simple and amusing -
sure to please the young ones for whom it is intended. And
the poems and narrative tell the story simply and directly,
A sample follows:
Homestead Notes
“The egg now must be ‘candled’.
That means going over a special light
To see if it is clean and fresh
and the quality is just right.”
“Only trained personnel handle the candling of the egg.
As the egg passes slowly over a special light, the candler
can pick out any eggs with defects such as bad shells, eggs
that are not ‘egg shaped,’ cracked shells, along with any
other defects.”
“Scramble, fry or poach them
Morning, noon or night.
No matter when you eat them
They are sure to be just right.”
“Eggs truly are becoming more and more the ‘main
dish’ for many meals. The egg is one of our most complete
foods, and remember, it is a completely natural food.”
Producing the coloring book was no easy matter.
Although the poems came easily and the sketches were
done without a great deal of agony, those were really just
the first steps. The Kuipers formed “Know About
Publications, Inc.” to produced the book, and then worked
on coyprighting the logo, “Did You Know About Book?”
There was also the matter of contacting printers and
working with them through all stages of production.
When asked if there were any interesting problems they
ran into in producing the book, Dona said with a laugh,
“Every time we turned around there was another one.”
My husband ran them all down.”
frozen meats to canned vegetables and boxed
goods. Our supermarkets must truly seem like a
fantastic dream to a foreign visitor who is used to
seeing just a few products in a market without the
shining grocery carts, fancy displays and “early
bird specials.”
Continuing research has given us a variety of
fruits, beverages and also the “tender chicken" but
such goes unnoticed by many of the consumers
who feel food is too highly priced. Before reflecting
on the principals which helped to create the food
consumers toss in their basket, the only reaction
which seems to cross their minds is the price.
Little do they know that the percentage of their
earnings which goes for food is very small com
pared to many countries of the world.
Agricultural forecasters have recently an
nounced that the price of food will probably be
about 9 percent above that of last year. But before
you gasp - why not realize that in the two previous
years the increase was 14 percent While it can be
noted that the total personal consumption ex
penditures rose in the second quarter of this year
most of the gam was caused by people eating out at
Here's the cover of Dona Kuipers’ new coloring
book - “The Incredible Edible Egg."
Her first reaction to seeking the printed publication
was, “I was worried. I looked at this and looked at that
and was very concerned about mistakes. For instance, I
wish I had taken more time on the cover.” There were
some minor mistakes in the first printing which will be
corrected on subsequent runs.
Now Dona is in the very time consuming task of mailing
out samples of the publication in an effort to begin
distribution. Initial distribution will be through packers,
who hopefully will see that the book find their was to
supermarkets and schools. Dona was on the program at
the Northeast Poultry Producers Council convention in
Hershey this week talking about the book and ways of
distributing it.
Dona said, “Ther response has been real good so far.”
And of course, she says she will be proud “if people life
it.”
(Continued on Page 44|
For three years Dona has been running a mail order
distribution of egg carton craft booklets. She also has
had requests for unprinted egg cartons which she
shows here in abundance.
restaurants. Expenditures for food at home rose
only fractionally' Just how many consumers realize
that fact 7
While farmers realize many of these ideas and
understand the circumstances, many consumers
especially in the urban areas fail to really com
prehend the importance of the food prices and
quality.
But the consumers cannot be fully blamed, for
many times they just don’t know about the
research and effort which goes into making a good
wholesome product They expect the best and feel
hurt when something seems wrong.
We as farmers and agribusiness personnel must
help consumers understand that food just doesn’t
spring from the shelves and freezers of the
supermarket, but takes time and development with
a spattering of good weather and luck.
Thank goodness that "stewing chicken” has
improved in quality, for it shows that farmers,
producers and agribusiness isn’t halted at 3
standstill. Now let’s get that fact to the consumer
and we might not have to suffer through all those
boycotts and complaints'