http://www.care2.com/greenliving/homemade-natural-easter-egg-dyes.html
Homemade Natural Easter Egg Dyes
By Melissa Breyer, Senior Producer, Care2 Green Living
The year the Easter Bunny brought my kids only organic yogurt-covered raisins didn’t go over so well, but at least my daughters are gung-ho for dying Easter eggs with homemade, plant-based dyes. We rummage and smoosh and boil, and they are amazed and delighted by the colors we can come up with. They have fun, and I am relieved to be free of synthetic food dyes.
Certified food dyes approved by the FDA include colors synthesized from petroleum derivatives and even coal tar. While other food dyes based on natural ingredients come from things you may not care to ingest: Have you heard about carminic acid? It is a commonly used red food coloring, which comes from the dried, crushed bodies of pregnant female scale insects called cochineal. Yum.
By using plant-based dyes for coloring Easter eggs, not only do you know exactly what you’re getting (hold the insects, thanks) but the colors are far lovelier than their synthetic counterparts. They are muted yet vibrant, and knowing their source is gratifying on a deeper aesthetic level. Children seem to find that mashing food is also much more fun that simply dropping a tablet in a cup. As well, it is a great lesson in exploration—kids get to experiment with which plant materials work in which way, and can get creative with items in the refrigerator or pantry.
Some of these materials work best when they are boiled with the eggs (they will be noted below), and some work well made ahead and used by dipping or soaking the eggs. If you are using juice, just use it straight. Bulky materials will be boiled with the eggs or boiled and allowed to cool for dipping. The longer you let the eggs soak, the more intense the color will be (for the boiled versions, you can remove them from the heat and allow to cool in the dye bath).
You can use your favorite egg-dying tricks here as well: Like crayons for a batik effect or rubber bands for a tie-dye effect. If you like a glossy egg, you can rub the dyed eggs with vegetable oil when they are dry.
Red
Red onion skins, use a lot (boil with eggs)
Pomegranate juice
Orange
Yellow onion skins (boil with eggs)
Yellow
Lemon or orange peel (boil with eggs)
Carrot tops (boil with eggs)
Celery seed (boil with eggs)
Ground cumin (boil with eggs)
Ground turmeric (boil with eggs)
Yellow Brown
Dill seeds (boil with eggs)
Brown
Strong coffee
Instant coffee
Black walnut shells (boil with eggs)
Yellow Green
Bright green apple peels (boil with eggs)
Green
Spinach leaves (boil with eggs)
Blue
Canned blueberries and their juice
Red cabbage leaves (boil with eggs)
Purple grape juice
Violet Blue
Violet blossoms
Red onion skins, less amount than you need to make red (boil with eggs)
Lavender
Diluted purple grape juice
Violet blossoms plus squeeze of lemon (boil with eggs)
Pink
Beets, fresh or canned
Cranberries or cranberry juice
Raspberries
Red grape juice
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23 comments
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- Judi Lutz says
- Mar 20, 2008 11:37 AM
I notice the spammer regarding the heroes mindreader has left a post on here too.
- Kris D. says
- Mar 18, 2008 11:30 AM
Native Americans have been using natural dyes to dye porkypine quills for as long as anyone can remember. There are extensive lists online and in many books if you just look for them. Many of the ingredients are, like these examples, easily accessible. They used many of these examples as well. Good luck experimenting with new colors!
- Jayantika Sharma says
- Mar 17, 2008 6:08 AM
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- Tammy Hughs says
- Mar 14, 2008 6:44 AM
I always wondered what to use to do this,Now i know thanks. Now can anyone answer this..what can i use for Food coloring like in frostings. I live in Egypt and there is no place here that sells food coloring.they don't even sell liquid vanilla because of the alcohol content.so we use vanilla sugar.Tanks again everyone
- Helen S. says
- Mar 13, 2008 6:48 PM
I used to use onion skins, beet juice, and other natural dyes when my children were little. They got very creative with bee's wax to put patterns on the eggs, either before or after dying. If done after dying with one color, we then put another color over top, resulting in the pattern being in the first color.
- Istvan Matyus says
- Mar 13, 2008 1:38 PM
I can see that many are not very confident with the methods mentioned about using natural colorants as eg. onion skins but I have been using them with great success since I child (I'm 57)
- Elizabeth Nicholas says
- Mar 13, 2008 1:07 PM
Ever since I was a child in Britain, my family has dyed eggs in onion skins for Easter and then eaten the eggs after, with absolutely no ill effects.
To take dying one step further, use sprigs of parsley of other edible leaves and place these on the egg first, surround with onion skins and carefully insert into the leg of a old, washed leg of pantyhose. If the leg was knotted tightly first, and then knotted tightly after the egg is inserted, this will keep the 'leaf' in contact with the eggshell, and when cut open and removed after boiling, lovely natural designs can be seen. Keep adding eggs till the end of the leg. I have often done this with children at school here in Canada, and have had several "legs" of eggs boiling at once. Any extra onion skins were added to the pot. Just have each child use a crayon to identify their egg with their initials, a number, etc. Rubbing the eggs with butter wrappers or buttery hands when the eggs are cool enough to handle, also gives that lovely shine.
- Monica A. says
- Mar 12, 2008 9:01 PM
When my children were small 30 years ago, we used child safe water colors to paint our eggs and that was lots of fun. We also got very creative with hollowed out eggs (punch a small hole at each end, blow the contents into a bowl and then paint the shells with whatever) which we saved for years. I like your tissue paper idea for my grand daughter but am not getting the concept. Do you use colored paper and plain water or the other way around? I am not a crafts person, yhou understand.
Monica Ackerman
- Lisa T. says
- Mar 12, 2008 1:10 PM
If you wrap the eggs in the onion skins, either yellow or red, and then in cheesecloth or rubber band or string(a pain in the tush)
instead of just boiling them with the eggs, they impart a really cool marbled pattern on the eggs. A little veg oil to give shine and they are stunning in a bowl or basket.
- Mieva Lardie says
- Mar 12, 2008 11:50 AM
This sounds like great fun! I love to do things the old fashioned way. You just add the alternatives to vinegar water and dye like usual, right?
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