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Belize Has Brown Eggs: Dying Them For Easter

Apr 17, 2019|Ambergris Caye

A while ago, I wrote a post named: 15 Things No One Told You About Living in Belize and it focused on the bigger things. Stuff like relinquishing your inner control freak or the fact that while English is the official language, pretty much no one speaks it with their local friends and families.

But I could go on for days and days about the tiny little things that are different from daily life in the US – things that are no big deal…just different. And it’s often holidays that make me see them. Probably because holidays are SO steeped in tradition. Not just family traditions but century old stuff that you do just…because.

I don’t spend much time thinking about eggs…but yesterday, when I bought a dozen brown eggs to dye for Easter…two things struck me.

ALL eggs sold in Belize are brown. Unless they are “local eggs” – meaning they are from someone’s chicken coop – then they can be all sorts of magical egg colors. Here are some that a lady gave me a few months back. Hens that lay easter eggs!
Almost all eggs for sale in Belize are displayed in the shop in paper flats and they are UNREFRIGERATED. Apparently, that is true in many countries – scrubbing, sanitizing and then refrigerating eggs seems to be the exception rather than the rule. In fact, most places in the world sell brown eggs also. Americans seem to prefer white…the illusion of cleanliness and/or higher quality…store bought vs home-made.

Here is a post about visiting Blue Creek, Belize – where many of the chickens in the country are raised. SUPER interesting place and SO different from Ambergris Caye.

I’ll add in one unrelated but VERY BELIZE tidbit. Geckos. The ones that everyone has on their walls and ceilings lay eggs. Hard shelled eggs. And they leave them in all sorts of crevices around the house.

No…I am not going to try to dye them.

BUT I did dye easter eggs yesterday because that’s what we always did when I was little. Just BECAUSE.

We always used this kit – apparently they are still making it – and the eggs were cotton candy pink and buttercup yellow and robin egg blue.

Interestingly these dye pellets were first made in Newark, NJ by a pharmacist and marketed in 1893!

Here is what happened in my kitchen yesterday. Food coloring purchased for $6.75bzd at Ritchie’s Supermarket. One dozen eggs. A few splashes of white vinegar and some mugs of boiling water and VOILE!

Eggs in Belize are generally three for one dollar. So a dozen is $4bzd. In the US, the average price of a dozen eggs is $1.60US. Just in case you were wondering.