Rain Boots & Mulch : An Urban Homestead: Natural Easter Egg Dye

Easter is fast approaching...as in 2 days away! Every year my parents bought dozens of eggs and the each of us would go to town, dipping, dotting, and swirling our beloved white eggs in the vast ranges of brilliant colors. If you cant tell with all of the adjectives, this is one of my fondest memories as a child! However, this year I wanted to switch it up! Instead of buying fake dyes, I though, "I'll make my own!" That way I can use the veggies and fruits I use to get my dyes from, can go straight into my compost pile. So here is the recipe, the process, and bits here and there I learned from my first time of making natural dyes!

Take 3-4 cups of water, 3-4 cups of preferred veggie or fruit, add 2 tablespoons white vinegar, and boil it down for about 30 minutes. I sort of added and subtracted as I went along, so do what works for you! After you make the dyes, take out the veggies and fruits, and start dipping your eggs!

What I Used:

Pink/Red- Blackberries (Other options: red onion peel or raspberries)

Blue/Indigo- Cabbage (Cabbage makes a dye less blue and more indigo, beautiful nonetheless!)

Yellow- Tumeric (instead of 4 cups of veggies, use 4 tablespoons of your preferred spice)

Orange- Cayenne and Chili Powder (I mixed the two)

Brown- Coffee (I did one in a brown, realized it was like my farm fresh eggs and decided to dip it in purple!)

Note: Spinach is supposed to make green, however for me....it did not. Give it a try, though!

A piece of advice, these dyes are organic so they aren't as bright as the store bought dyes. To make my dyes more potent, I put the eggs in the pot, and reheated the dye, and let them sit till they reached the color I wanted.

Empty or Hard boiled?

I put a hole at the top and the bottom of my eggs, and blew out the yoke. This way I have empty egg shells that will last as long as I keep them safe and dont drop them!

But if you want to hard boil them, put your eggs in a pot of boiling water and boil them for about 15 minutes.

Take a look at the pictures below to see the process from start to finish!

Egg, meet nail.

Softly blow on the top of the egg, and the insides of the egg should come out of the bottom, where the second hole is.

And do that till your cheeks hurt, and your dozen eggs should be empty! Now let them dry for about 30 minutes!

After you've boiled down your veggies, fruits, and spices, start dipping (and dip as many times as you'd like)! I put mine back in the egg carton, to dry, for about 30 minutes.