Flowers in the house as we wait for flowers outside

It's April in Minnesota, which means that today is lovely and sunny and about 60 degrees, and there are tulips and crocuses just poking their green tips up out of the soil.

And tomorrow, a snowstorm is coming.

So I have been trying to complete my late winter/early spring pruning of trees and shrubs that I was supposed to do in March, except there was way too much snow on the ground and I needed to buy a new pruning saw and shears, which I didn't get around to until a week ago. For that, a not-so-early spring is actually helpful.

But for my spirits,  I have taken to buying bouquets at the co-op during my weekly grocery shopping trips, so I can enjoy some flowers and greenery in the house while not-so-patiently waiting for them to appear outside.

A recent article on one of my favorite eye-candy websites, Gardenista, offered some tips on arranging flowers like a Frenchwoman. I find myself torn between falling into dreamy idolizing of all things French, and Oh, Please. Really? But it was fun to look at the photos, so there's that. And some of the tips were actually helpful, in that they helped me articulate what I am attracted to when I see a flower arrangement that I really like, such as a limited color palette and a touch of wildness.

I started some seeds in January, including some pink pansies that have been languishing. I should have invested in some supplemental plant lighting a little sooner, I have concluded. I have the seedlings in the porch now, which is enclosed but unheated, with south and west windows, and I added a grow light, but they remain tiny. I'll end up buying pansies at the local garden center for my front step urn, but my tiny pansies will surely bloom eventually. Other flowers I have started from seed are looking pretty good, and giving me some hope for the near future.

I also started some Dutch white clover, for St. Patrick's Day, by which time they looked pretty cute.

But I decided to keep them going, and now they've become quite lanky. I've changed up their companion figurines from elves to something more Easterlike, and I'm rather enjoying them as quirky houseplants. I may repot them in something that will go in an Easter basket, although I am enjoying them in their cute little planters, so maybe not. They'll eventually join the compost pile out back.

Meanwhile, I'll be trying to finish up that pruning before new growth starts, and checking to see what new bouquets Seward Co-op has to offer this Friday.

Cabbages and deviled eggs

I wanted to play around with a bit of natural egg dyeing for Easter, but since I planned to make the whole batch into deviled eggs, it didn't really make sense to color the shells. Besides, the eggs I buy come with already colored shells.

Recalling how my Grandma Parker would dye the egg whites for the deviled eggs she served on Easter, I thought I would try that, using red cabbage, which is supposed to produce a robin's-egg blue color. I shelled the eggs after cooking, putting the whites in one bowl and setting the yolks aside in another.

Then I chopped up half a head of red cabbage, which filled a six-cup bowl, and added that to about 6 cups of water, brought it all to a boil and simmered it for about 15 minutes, until it made a dark purple liquid.

There's no need to add vinegar, because that's just to make the dye adhere to the shells. The whites will readily absorb the color without it. So I poured the liquid, chopped cabbage and all, over the whites, just enough to cover them, and put the leftover (there was quite a bit) in the refrigerator.

You can see one of the whites peaking up in the lower left

I left them in for about two hours. During that time I mixed up the yolks with mustard, mayonnaise and some chopped onions and spinach for the filling. When I removed the whites from the cabbage dye bath I found they had turned a rather deep denim blue. I probably could have left them for a shorter time. I placed them on paper towels to dry off a bit, then stored them in the fridge overnight to fill in the morning, just because that was more convenient for me. I thought they smelled a little bit like cooked cabbage the next morning, but that dissipated quickly once they were sitting on the platter uncovered.

I plan to experiment some with the leftover liquid. I immersed a few yards of natural (off-white) linen thread used for bookbinding, and got this silvery lavender color after about 3 or 4 hours .(I should do a better job of record keeping if I'm going to be doing experiments!)

I rinsed it thoroughly with cold water to set the dye, but won't worry about that too much, since nobody puts a handbound journal in the wash! But before I play around with this homemade dye and fabric, I'll be sure to do a little more research about mordants and such.

And I hope to have no waste — the leftover cooked cabbage is quite edible!

Cabbages and eggs, again

Boiled eggs, chopped red cabbage, turmeric, & vinegar

I wasn't going to color Easter eggs this year, what with Nora away and me not into doing the whole Easter Bunny thing anymore. Last year I announced to our two adult children that the Easter Bunny had retired, but if they wanted to hide eggs for each other, they should feel free to go right ahead and do so.

Here the eggs are inside the bowls

But I still enjoy coloring eggs, especially since I started playing around with food-based natural coloring agents a few years ago. It kind of seems more magical to me, to make your own dyes from foods and spices; or maybe it's just more appealing and kind of a novelty. It always makes me want to experiment with dyeing other things, like linen bookbinding thread (which I've done) and paper (which I've also done, but only with tea and rust—but not together; that is, I have used them together and it just turned the paper gray, so now i know better).

It's the one time each year that I buy white eggs. All the rest of the year I buy brown eggs. Either way, they're organic, free-range eggs from the co-op, but most of the time the brown eggs just appeal to me more. But I don't expect they would color up very well, would they?

To keep things simple this year, I just did two colors, with three eggs of each. I boiled up seven eggs Friday morning, and ate one of them for breakfast (taking it out of the water after only three minutes so the yolk would be soft), and let the others sit until I had finished my tea.

Not bad!

So, this year's egg dyes are from red cabbage and the spice turmeric, following the directions from Lakewinds Co-op. After letting them sit in the refrigerator for a few hours, I took the eggs out and rinsed them off and was pleased to find I got a deeper blue from the cabbage than in past years—and some little white splotches that make them look more interesting than if they were just evenly colored. The turmeric always produces a nice rich gold color. (Compare the result from a couple of years ago in this blog post.)

Next: make deviled eggs, of course. And cole slaw—there's always more cabbage than I need just for eggs. And maybe next year I'll try some different foods, like beets, too.