Thirty-one years ago, Taste was suggesting that readers drop their Paas dye kits and embrace an easier, more time-honored way to create beautiful Easter eggs. The advice was simple: Follow the Latvians.

"The customs for coloring Latvian Lieldienu olas (meaning Easter eggs) and Ukrainian pysanky are generations old," wrote Minneapolis Star staffer Ilga Eglitis in the April 11, 1979, issue of Taste. "There's nothing to buy when making the Latvian version; nearly everything you'll need is already in your kitchen cupboards and drawers."

The story was a glimpse inside one family's annual spring tradition (for the full story, go to www.startribune.com/tabletalk) of making lovely Easter eggs using natural dyes produced from carrot tops, coffee grounds, beet juice and yellow onion skins.

"Dried outer skins from yellow onions are a must," wrote Eglitis. "Most Latvian families save the skins all year to ensure a plentiful supply. 'You can never have too many,' says Janis Pone of Minneapolis.

"For the past year, his wife, Elga, has saved them in a big plastic bucket. The Pones' kitchen buzzes with chatter and laughter as they color eggs with their three children, Zinta, 7, Imants, 4, and Gunta, 2, whose intent faces ring the big, newspaper-covered kitchen table."

Eglitis outlined the two basic processes used in making Lieldienu olas. "Marble-like designs are achived by wrapping raw eggs in layers of onion skins," she wrote. "The design can be enhanced by pressing small leaves, flower petals and other tiny objects against the egg before layering onion skins around it. The second method is putting bare, raw eggs into onion dye baths to produce plain, dark colors that are perfect for scratching Latvian folk art symbols on the shells."

A good-natured competition often came in between the dyeing and eating rituals. "Easter breakfast in Latvian homes traditionally begins with an egg-knocking contest," wrote Eglitis.

"With an egg in hand, each family member challenges the person next to him to crack his egg with another egg. This continues until all the eggs but one are cracked. Its holder is the victor. And for those who get carried away, cracking more eggs than they can possibly eat, rasols, a Latvian potato salad with eggs, is traditional for the next day's menu."

RICK NELSON