Farmers Market: What to do with those dyed eggs

Linda Robertson/Columnist
Published: April 2, 2008

Well, it's officially spring! Some of the annual rights of spring are happening around us, Farmers Market banner over Center Street, crocus and daffodils blooming, robins returning, weeds growing with renewed vigor, etc.

We have another way to determine the arrival of spring at our house.

You'll know it's almost spring at the Robertson's if:

» The pile of graph paper beside my husbands chair is at least three inches tall.

» Every pencil in the house is in the drawer beside his chair.

» The path in the carpet from his chair to the picture window is a little more flat than usual.

» We make multiple trips to Southern States, The Farmers Co-op to purchase from a multi-page seed list. Live plants will come later after frost.

» He invites our adult sons up for the weekend… to work in the garden.

About a week ago Chris and I had done some advance work. Get this, he even allowed me to drive the tractor! It was really big girl stuff. I backed it up to the tiller attachment and followed in-structions as he put it onto the tractor and hooked up the PTO ("Power Take Off," for you city folks).

This year all these signs came to pass and Easter Saturday was GARDEN DAY.

Early Saturday morning (really early because the baby woke up screaming from a dream), Chris, Christopher and Steven were off to the IHOP to fuel up for their peat moss shopping trip to Lowe's. Actually, I didn't know it but they were surprising me with a brick landing outside the basement door, so I guess they did have to fuel up to carry the heavy bricks.

While Dad and the boys were outside,

Eugenia and the grandkids started dying eggs. Have you ever seen a 16-month-old dye an egg? A recipe for egg salad will follow. The 5-year-old was having a great time, but the call of spring could not be ignored, so the kids and I went outside while Mom got stuck with finishing the eggs.

Our 5-year-old grandson just wanted to run, roll, jump and run some more in the fresh tilled dirt. Ian, the 16-month-old, wanted to get a hoe and work with the men. What a picture, Ian holding the handle of the hoe as his binky bobbed in his little mouth. Of course I got lots of pictures.

Baby helped dye eggs Egg Salad

6 boiled, cracked and slightly colored damaged Easter eggs (plain hardboiled eggs work too)

¾ cups mayonnaise

½ teaspoon cider vinegar

2 teaspoons of your favorite mustard

2 stalks of celery

1 small onion

Peel the eggs. Chop finely and place in a bowl. Chop the celery very finely, do the same to the onion. Put into the bowl with the eggs. In a separate small bowl, add the mayo, vinegar and mus-tard, stir and taste. Adjust the taste of the sauce to suit yourself. Stir the sauce into the egg mix-ture a little at a time…. You can always add more but you can't remove it is you salad gets too runny. Serve on lettuce or on toast.

Linda Robertson is the executive director for Historic Manassas Inc.