We just had to pass along this all natural Easter egg idea from this month’s Ladies’ Home Journal (what? Heidi Klum was on the cover… she sucked me in). And I’m glad that she did because they compiled a little list of foods & spices that can be used to create all natural Easter egg dyes! Apparently all you have to do is add two cups of water and two tablespoons of white vinegar to the ingredients below for some eco-friendly egg decorating:
- For orange dye, use 2 tablespoons of paprika.
- Feeling blue? Try 1 and a half cups of blueberries.
- For pink, use 1 cup of chopped fresh beets.
- Keen for green? Use 1 cup of blueberries & 2 tablespoons of turmeric.
To make the dye bath, bring the ingredients to a boil and remove ’em from heat. Cool and strain the liquid into a medium bowl and submerge 4 to 6 hard-cooked eggs into the dye for up to 30 minutes, depending on how deep you want the color to be (soft subtle tones look sweet too!). Remove the eggs from the dye and place them on a cooling rack to dry and drain. Then just pop them in the fridge until they’re ready to use.
We love this idea! And imagine how fun it’ll be for kiddos (and grown-ups alike) to play with veggies, fruits and spices as well as eggs. It’s a smorgasbord of Easter fun and it’s good clean fun at that (no artificial ingredients required). Happy (yes I did just resist the urge to write “hoppy”) Easter everyone!
Psst – We tried dying eggs two years later for Clara’s Easter basket! You can see how it worked out here!
What a great idea–I’m definitely doing this, too!
Thanks for sharing. I love this idea!!
Use onion peels for yellow!
I looove Easter!!
How did the brown spots get there?
Hey Barbara,
That’s just a picture that I found with green eggs in it. I believe those eggs were speckled to begin with, so the brown spots remained while the green dye turned the white part of the shell green. Hope it helps!
xo,
Sherry
I dunno, it seems like a waste of blueberries to me…
Though this is a better use for beets than eating them.
my family did this growing up, we used onion skins are a pretty tan/brown color :)
Sherry,
I’ve been doing this for years since I saw it in a Martha Stewart magazine. They are totally cute. Check out this link for some more color options.
http://www.marthastewart.com/article/dyeing-eggs-naturally?autonomy_kw=natural%20dye%20easter%20eggs&rsc=header_1
Dianne
To make speckles like those eggs, melt a tablespoon of chocolate chips, dip an old toothbrush in it and “spray” the eggs by running a finger along the bristles ;)
I’ve been doing this with onion skins as well. Red onions make an interesting purply-brown color. And instead of soaking the eggs in a dye created by the skins, I wrap the skins around my eggs, wrap loosely with foil, and drop into boiling water. They come out with a neat crinkly irregular look, so cool.
I love this idea!
I love the idea!! Maybe I’ll try it with my students!!!
http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/04/how-to-dye-easter-eggs-naturally-without-a-box-onion-skins-beets-cabbage.html
Saw this this week…a few more colors/ideas listed. My family often makes pysanki (Ukrainian easter eggs) so I never have tried the all natural route, but these look fantastic!
I dyed some eggs once using onion skins, coffee and an old pair of pantihose.
It was a tad embarrassing, but I went into the grocery store and put a whole lot of leftover onion skins (the brown, papery bits that were laying in the bottom of the onion tray) into a bag. I showed these to the person at the counter before confirming I wouldn’t be paying for them!
After blowing the eggs, I covered them in onion skins. I wrapped each one separately in some pantihose and secured it. These were then put in the strong black coffee solution (sorry- I really can’t remember how long I left them there).
Once the eggs had dried out, I took off their ‘wrappers’ and was left with lovely markings -a bit liked crinkled brown paper- all over the eggs. I attached different coloured (sorry- Aussie spelling for ‘colour’ here) ribbons to hang them in a bunch.
They’re long-gone from my style but it was cute at the time.
I want to add that I have also used the coffee, beets, etc.. to color my easter eggs.
You can wrap each egg in a piece of pantyhose and secure with a rubber band, then boil in the homemade dyes. The pantyhose leaves a very cool pattern on the eggs, and is especially pretty when you use pantyhose with a pattern (lacey, striped, etc..)
Oh yes, I have become so addicted to your blog that, while anticipating Monday (and keeping my fingers crossed for you guys to close those deals, get the money, give the money and move in casa No2 :), I have been reading everything here in more or less chronological order.
Any way – ’bout the egg colouring (natural ways): we mostly use stinging nettle for green eggs and onion skin for red ones. If you want easy, yet beautiful prints, common practice is to attach a clover (or anything as nice) to the egg, secure it with pantyhose and boil it in onion leaves/nettle.
If you are in for some serious egg decorating – you can do it with wax/paraffin, again before you colour the eggs.
Very low res video on wax technique (wax is black because of the flame):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_QVaMCUGgo
Forum thread on some beautiful Easter eggs:
http://forum.vidovdan.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6137