Saturday, April 3, 2010

Latvian Easter Eggs


1. Locate some nice fresh eggs.


2. Find some seeds, green things, maybe a tiny edible flower.


3. Gather up a pile of yellow onion skins. Wet eggs and gently press seeds and green things onto eggs. Wrap eggs with cheesecloth and kitchen string. Place it all in a pot. Cover with water and proceed as if hard boiling eggs (use a gentle simmer versus a rolling boil). Turn off stove & let cooked eggs sit in colored water for about an hour.


4. Drain eggs in colander. Remove string, cheesecloth, etc.


5. Admire your Latvian Easter Eggs.

32 comments:

  1. These are perfect...what a sweet tribute to a Latvian Easter...I really appreciate the simplicity and the naturalness(is that a word?)of your easteregg dying.
    Happy Easter Denise!

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  2. Wow -- these are so beautiful! Love your photos. Thanks for the how-to, Denise.

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  3. Ooh, there's such a delicate, organic feel to these eggs! So precious and wonderful! Thanks for the instructions!

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  4. they are lovely...thanks for sharing the process!! Happy Easter

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  5. What lovely eggs, subtle and delicate and a really lovely process to make them. It is pouring with rain in Rome after lots of very sunny days, we are house bound for now we are well stocked with chocolate eggs though.

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  6. These are really beautiful. Happy Easter!

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  7. Beautiful, and so much easier than the Ukrainian ones!

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  8. i haven't dyed eggs in a few years now that my kids are older, but this looks like fun and the results are beautiful. thatnks for sharing the process.

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  9. These are so beautiful! Put my Paas to shame. Happy Easter, Denise!

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  10. These are beautiful Denise! I loved making these as a child and can't wait to share this technique with Hadley. They represent springtime and rebirth so organically and simply. Happy Easter!

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  11. I've never decorated eggs for Easter before I'm ashamed to say. Yours are absolutely beautiful at every stage. Happy Easter and thanks for the lovely photos!

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  12. Hello Denise. This is so similar to what my dear neighbour does. I believe she wraps the whole egg into some nylon stocking, brings it together as tightly as possible and then ties a knot. Different to yours in that the 'cotton twine' is actually placed all over the leaves or flowers on the egg to help keep in place. They are as similar as they are different. What clever people using onion skins. They were such resourceful people back then and we really should be keeping their traditions alive. I'm so pleased you are. Wonderful. Happy Easter.
    Mariana

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  13. How cool! I've never seen this before! Thanks for sharing.

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  14. Wonderful! Hope you had a wonderful Easter!

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  15. oh how beautiful! i would love to try this out. thanks for sharing and hope you had a wonderful easter!

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  16. This is so brilliantly delicately natural...I'm so in love with your eggs! Your photographs paired with each step of the process are gorgeous.

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  17. Camilla, Naturalness is indeed a word, a very well chosen word for describing this process. Thank you.

    Jessica, Thank you. If you try them some time, send me a photograph. My dad did things a little differently and his looked really cool too.

    Tumbleweed Woman, I enjoyed making these way back when I was a little tot and it was fun to return to those memories. The moment I saw those shades of brown on the eggs, so many thoughts from the past came flooding in. Thank you!

    t does wool, Thank you. I enjoyed every minute of the making, documenting, and now...the eating.

    Rachel, Thanks. It seems being stuck indoors due to rain isn't so bad if you have nice chocolate eggs (and an Italian drummer) keeping you company.

    Beth, Thank you. I had fun.

    Hungry Girl, I've seen several images of Hungarian Easter eggs and they are absolutely gorgeous. Yes, these eggs are far more easygoing.

    Lucy, It is a fun process, pretty stress-free, and the results are always a little different.

    Erin, Paas are fun too. It just depends what sort of mood you are in. Maybe using beets would fall somewhere in the middle. My dad and I discussed trying beets or rainbow chard, but we both stuck with the onion skins this year. Beet experiment next year!

    Roxane, Hello! It was so fun and brought back so many memories. I'm glad to know you'll be sharing this family tradition with little Hadley.

    Vanessa, I haven't decorated eggs in a long while. These are the eggs I loved making when I was a little girl. My dad's side of the family is Latvian. I've talked about giving them a go for years and this year I finally hopped to it.

    Mariana, Your neighbors eggs were lovely! I did things a little differently than we did when I was a little girl. I like experimenting. My dad made his more traditionally and his were great too. It was fun to see what Philomena did. Thank you for your post.

    Ann Kim, Nope, I don't think they are very common. Maybe that will change... A family tradition for me, but a new adventure for most.

    Jane, Thanks. My Easter was fun. We even ate hot cross buns!

    Jill, I hope you do try these one day. If you do, I'd love to see a photograph of your version.

    Alexandria, Thanks so much. I really enjoyed the entire process, the making of the eggs and the photo documentation as I progressed through each step. These are not things I usually do. It was a nice change of pace.

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  18. Those are so wonderful - I've never seen anything like these!!
    Happy Easter...a little late...

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  19. how poetic...you make poetry even out of stained eggs! always surprising.

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  20. Wow. Now those are some dyed eggs I could get behind. American Easter eggs always seem too artificial to me, but those are gorgeous. Noted for next year!

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  21. I used to make eggs like these as a child at my grandmothers. Brings me right back to her village. They are perfect.

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  22. ooooooh.....these are gorgeous! Yours turned out so well.

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  23. I'll be passing this one on to my daughter in readiness for next Easter. What a lovely idea.

    Thanks for dropping in at Square Sunshine, by-the-way. You're very welcome.

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  24. wow! so unique! I wonder what would happen with red onion skins...? or other vegetable skins... I'm thinking beets, purple kohlrabi, red cabbage, carrots, kale.....

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  25. beautiful! I will have to remember this for next year.

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  26. Beautiful..! I loev the way you gave directions as if telling a story...so soothing. And your photographs are fantastic, as always.

    Happy belated Easter, dear. And that white plate..? Is that one of your wonderful creations? Beautiful, too.

    much love,
    -maria

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  27. Thank you for the Latvian Easter egg tutorial. I love this series of photos and photo nr. 1 is absolutely beautiful! The light, the shadows, the colours...love it.

    Hope you had a lovely Easter.

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  28. These are exactly the eggs we used to make as a child -- and my mom hails from Scotland and England! I still remember saving onion skins all year long, and hunting down Spring's earliest fern fronds for the motifs. Thanks for the memories, and I'm pleased to have found your sweet spot, here.

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  29. Pen and Paperie, Thank you and happy April to you.

    Amelia, You are too kind. Thank you.

    Apples and Butter, No artificial in these. Enjoy!

    Raina, I love that we have this in common and that you were able to take a journey back in time to a nice place.

    Rebekah, Thanks!

    Martin, Great! I hope your daughter gives them a try.

    Jen, My dad and I discussed red onions and beets, but then we both just stuck with tradition this year. Perhaps we'll do some experimenting next year. So many options. Thanks for your ideas!

    Abigail, Thanks. I hope you have fun experimenting.

    Maria, Thank you! Yes, the white plate is one of my creations. I am missing working with clay. Perhaps I'll return one day.

    Christina, Thank you.

    life in yonder, Thank you. I think photo no.1 is my favorite too.

    molly, It's so exciting to find other people that have dyed eggs in this tradition. Fern fronds would be so pretty!

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