This package came as a sur
prise
A return address from
Louisiana immediately gave
away the identity of the senders,
friends who had moved there a
few years ago from their home in
another distant state. Inside the
box was an assortment of items
representative of their regional
“cajun” foods spicy seasoning,
mixes of “dirty rice” and jambal
aya, a can of tomatoes with
chilies, instant coffee with chico
ry, and a large bottle of Tabasco
sauce hot enough to season us
for eternity
What a delightful treat'
In an effort to return the
favor, I’ve been polling friends
and family on what items might r
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be gathered into a recipratory
sort of thank-you box showcas
ing traditional “Pennsylvania
Dutch” culture. Among the sug
gestions have been whoopie pies,
egg noodles, apple butter, hard
pretzels, chowchow, shoofly pie.
Even hogmaw. Which we decid
ed would be near-impossible to 1
ship and confound the dickens
out of the recipients.
You eat WHAT from a pig?
Oh, and a hex sign. For good ;
luck
With the Easter holiday sea- .
son upon us, what could be a '
more appropriate food 'than' a"
traditional Pennsylvania Dutch—
pickled redbeet egg? But how in
the world would one send them,
short of packing those treats in
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d ry ice. And would redbeet eggs
b e any less baffling to the uniti
axed than dining on a hog stom
ach?
' As a kid, Easter and pickled
rpdbeet eggs were synonymous.
Sometimes during the week
tjefore Easter, Mom would hard
qoil a big kettle of eggs. We kids
would gather round the kitchen
table covered with newspaper
for safety, based on the premise
that at least one of us would
ipanage to spill one of those lit
tle prone-to-tip, individual bot
tles of egg dye. We would emerge
f rom the effort with a basketful
t f crazy-quilt-colored eggs,
splotchy-colored fingers, soggy
newsprint from where we had
i pilled the requisite bottle of dye
and probably enough mess to
: nake Mom grateful Easter only
i ame once a year.
(When I couldn’t find any a‘
:ew weeks ago, a good friend
racked down for me some of
hose packs of Easter egg dye in
ittle bottles to ship west for our
Tandsons. Their Oregon neigh
lorhood stores carry only the
dip-and-dunk kinds.)
After coloring came the fun of
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hiding the eggs, hunting the
eggs, occasionally losing, break
ing or sharing an egg with the
dogs. Ultimately, though, some
of them would emerge as deli
cious redbeet eggs, peeled, hard
boiled caster eggs swimming in
bright red-purple juice in com
pany with slices of pickled beets.
A more logical choice to ship
to our Louisiana friends might
be onion-skin-dyed eggs. These,
too, must have Pennsylvania
Dutch roots; most folks have
never heard of the warm-brown
colored Easter symbols. Again,
Mom made these each Easter,
using the accumulation of
papery-dry onion skins which
had accumulated during their
storage over the winter.
The way Mom made these
, resulted irya sort of very humble
cousin to the intricately-colored
psahky eggs of Russian culture.
Both are decorated using wax,
the 'psanky eggs taking numer-
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 3, 1999-83-
ous coats of wax and dye baths,
while the onion-skin eggs mere
ly need to be hard-boiled along
with the onion skins covered
with water. To decorate them,
Mom simply took a crayon and
drew designs on the raw eggs.
As the eggs cooked in the onion
skins, the wax-covered area
picked up less of the color, leav
ing the design idelibly lighter
than the warm-brown-dyed sur
rounding shell.
Perhaps I can blow the con
tents from a couple of eggs des
tined for cooking or baking and
onion-skin dye them as an
example. Or ship hard-boiled
ones carefully packed with a Do-
Not-Eat! warning.
Sharing traditional foods - at
least what can be shipped back
and forth - is a delightful way to
partake of distant cultures one
might not otherwise experience.
We may celebrate Easter
with a culture clash; pickled
eggs laced with Tabasco
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