You probably already know to boil them starting with cold water, so they don’t crack. And after they boil for 10 minutes, to cool them fast, in cold water, so they’ll be easier to peel. But for fresh brown eggs, there are a few other things to pay attention to.

Fresh eggs come coated with something waxy that protects them when they’re growing chickens. Unfortunately, it also protects them from accepting dye. The more clean you get them to start, the better the dye seems to stick.

Here’s a rundown of what we came up with when dying fresh brown eggs.

• The earthy colors turned out pretty cool.
• Scrub the eggs before dying for more vibrant color
• Use extra dye and extra vinegar for nice bright colors.

Have you ever dyed brown eggs? How did it work out? I used store-bought tablets, but next year I’m hoping to try more natural dyes.

Not that the act is uninteresting. But it’s very visceral, very in-the-moment, and how much is there to say about it, really?

But mostly, I’ve been occupied by my ferocious—if floundering—pursuit of compassion. I am trying to figure out if I should talk here about things like

• how NVC looks as an internal process
• whether I can embrace non-judgment and yet retain discernment
• whether I want to…
• where ‘evaluation’ fits between judgement and discernment
• whether I can really embrace everyone in my path, or
• whether survival requires me to turn away from some folks’ pain
• … and so much more.

That’s what’s on my mind, and keeping me from blogging about food.
The reasonable thing would be to keep focused on food. Be consistent, follow the Rules for Successful Blogging (or not!). Google will like me better. Readers will gradually increase, until some day I reach the pinnacle of success and someone buys the t-shirt.

Want to weigh in? Do you want more…

Life

What it’s like to commute by bike, to live car-free, school-free, to raise compassionate, free teenage boys, surviving without paper towels?

Love

Well, I already covered that… compassion. I’m obsessed.

Food

Or maybe you just want to hear about real food? More recipes? More rants about high-fructose corn syrup? What to do with a 50lb bag of local wheat? How to learn to like beans?
What say you?

As a result, though, the “trash” we create when cooking isn’t boxes and packaging. It’s food scraps. And I began to get really tired of throwing them away. Working hard to grow food, then cutting part off and putting it in a landfill where it can’t feed us anymore, just seemed stupid.

Compost takes food scraps and makes them into more food. It completes a cycle of life. I wanted a compost pile. But I couldn’t have one, because we live in an apartment.

See, our garden is a community garden space, and it’s not close to home. Our own yard is small, and we aren’t allowed to tear up the grass to make garden space. We do have a little bit of dirt, but not enough to grow much of our food, and certainly not enough to locate a compost heap. But not composting our food scraps was not acceptable to me. What to do?

I got out a five-gallon bucket and started saving the scraps. I didn’t know where I was going to put them, and it seemed a bit strange, but I didn’t pay attention to those thoughts. I wondered once in a while, as I sliced and cooked, where I’d be putting them. I thought about hauling them to our community garden, but that would require the car, which also seemed dumb. (I usually bike there.) But none of this took up too much of my thinking. Mostly, I just sliced and put the scraps in the bucket.

Two days later, a compost pile appeared in my back yard.

Our neighbors to the back have a house with a lovely garden and a stand of trees back there (“the forest”).  We were chatting, and one of them mentioned compost, and how he has lots, and I told him of my dilemma. His wife overheard me, and said she wants to start composting kitchen scraps, rather than just yard waste, and before I knew it, the new community compost pile had been sited on the property line, and had been started with three wheelbarrows of compost from their garden.

Later that night my husband grinned at me, and said that when he saw the bucket of scraps, he knew a compost heap was coming. He thought we’d have to work at it somehow, but “Poof!” he told me. “It just appeared.”

According to the Abraham work by Esther and Jerry Hicks, you manifest things when you simply believe they are true. If you want something, you have to imagine it, feel it, know that it’s real and it’s in your future.  I can’t seem to remember that consciously, but when I remember it subconciously, the results are very cool. :)

Of course, you need calories to live, so consumers must be careful not to attempt to live on Diet Coke alone. “However,” says Becky Phlemming, vice president of corporate strategy for con-agra, “there is an easy solution. Wonder Bread has now created a 100% whole grain bread made from our albino wheat, so it’s still white as the driven snow.”

Stay tuned for more breaking news, including ingredients lists.

P.S. Some folks have told me they’re not sure if I’m serious. Well, I *am* serious, in that these products really exist. I’m not serious about them being good for you. Yuck!

I’m in love with the Oregon wild rice I found at the Saturday Market this week here in Eugene.

Here’s a news story about how it grows here.

My brown rice has been coming from at least California. This stuff is yummy, and local, and it replaces turf farms! How awesome is that?

My friend (who had been on the lookout for places that serve local, organic food, especially affordable ones) said she wasn’t interested because she’s avoiding fast food. And this got me thinking.

They do serve food to people in cars, and they do use paper wrappers and plastic cups. (Though I’m guessing they’d use whatever dishes I brought with me.) What else might Oso Delicioso have in common with McDonald’s? Is this fast-food in the ways that count?

* * *

When I mention talking with God, people ask “How do you know it’s God? How do you know it’s not your imagination? How do you know it’s not of the devil?”

First, my imagination is a direct link to Godsource, if I let it be. Why would God need to speak in a booming voice or from a burning bush, if I’m listening? Imagination is one of the most amazing things in the entire world. Wouldn’t it be a perfect vehicle for God’s communication?

As for whether what I’m hearing is truly God, or some evil spirit or my mundane speculations instead, here is how I know. Only our highest thoughts come from God. Only our grandest visions, our purest feelings. God-Oneness cannot be expressed as other than truth, joy and love. If it’s fear, it’s not god. If it’s deceitful, it’s not god. Judgemental, sorrowful, separate, it’s not god.

See how easy that is?

* * *

So I was thinking about fast food, and whether Oso Delicioso would count, and what I realized is that the reason I don’t want to go to McDonald’s is that it’s not made with love.

I want to eat food grown and collected with love, prepared with love, served with love.

If we get that part right, the rest will follow.

And now, I’m off to get a stuffed biscuit, made with organic flour and local eggs. :)
________________________________________________________________
*Oso Delicioso is in Eugene, Oregon, where W. 6th and W. 7th connect.