Venus Rising

Food for SoulIssue: Aries 08

Eggs, Glorious Eggs

Watercolor by Philip GaligaAlthough another late Nor’easter may be predicted for the vernal equinox, significant daylight after our work day signals us to think spring and partake of the rituals, celebrations, and foods of the new season. For Christians, the Easter holiday marks the commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ (although the word itself is derived from the name of the Saxon goddess of fertility who was celebrated with a spring dinner). And nothing symbolizes the potential of new life more than the egg. Eggs of spring are gifts, not only for Easter observers but also for those seeking the freshest food. 

Aside from this symbolism, spring is also prime time for eggs because their hosts are ready to deliver. Chickens, the bird of choice for consumable eggs, have been reluctant layers over the dark, cold winter season. Hens start producing more eggs in spring. Twelve to fourteen hours of daylight greatly increases their production. Certainly, artificial light is substituted to feed the United States an estimated 235 eggs per person per year. Regardless, fresh spring eggs are the finest example of their kind. Freshly plucked from the nest, they are slightly warm and their shell has coarseness like card stock with a bit of a chalky feel. An egg with a shiny smooth shell is old and not preferable. At farm stands, you might find your pick of various colors of eggs. Not only are shells the familiar colors of white and brown but they also come in shades of blue and green. It is thought that the color of the egg correlates to the color of the chicken’s ear lobes?!  In all likelihood, they varying colors come from the hen’s breed and what she feeds on. In any case, compare a fresh egg with one transported over many miles, in the back of a semi-truck, waiting at rest stops and weigh stations in the dark to finally sit in a fluorescent lighted display case, and you will taste a difference. Visit your farmer and gather the morning’s hatch warm from the forgiving hen’s nest. It is different. It is the fresh. It is spring!

Eggs have long been a traditional spring gift. In ancient times, eggs were painted red, shared at a meal in honor of the spring equinox, the shells then crushed to chase winter away. The practice of giving up meat and animal byproducts during the Lenten season began in the 9^th century and led to the popularity of eggs as gifts at Easter. Denied for 46 days it was popular to bring back eggs by decorating them and giving them in baskets. Realistically, it was a good way to disperse a sudden cache of eggs. The practice of giving decorative eggs reached an elaborate height in 19th century Russia when Alexander III commissioned Carl Fabergé to make eggs of gold and jewels for his wife as an Easter present. The original was a decorated gold egg that opened to reveal a ruby encased in a miniature gold crown, held by a gold chicken that sat in a gold yolk. So enamored were the Czar and his wife that he continued the commission, as did his son after him, every year for thirty years. Each year the eggs became more elaborate and often depicted an event or theme in Russian history.