Easter is this weekend, so in an attempt to avoid chocolate eggs I’ll be decorating some of our own with the kids this afternoon. The chickens are producing 4-5 per day at the moment, not as many as they might but acceptable. They’re loving the extra protein in their diet I’ve been offering care of my maggot breeding enterprise.
Here’s a few tips for dying eggs naturally.
- Yellow— yellow onion skins, turmeric (1/2 tsp. per cup water), celery leaves
- Orange–any yellow dye plus beet juice
- Red–beets, paprika, red onion skins
- Pink–cranberry juice
- Blue–blackberries, grape juice concentrate, red cabbage
- Brown–black tea, white oak, juniper berry, coffee
- Light purple–blackberries, grapes, violets
- Green–alfalfa, spinach, kale, violet blossom plus 1/4 tsp. baking soda, tansy, nettle, chervil, sorrel, parsley, carrot tops, beet tops or dip yellow egg in blue dye
Hard boil eggs with 1 tsp. vinegar in the water. Place dying ingredients in non-aluminum pans, cover with water and boil 5 minutes to 1 hour until desired color is achieved. Use enough material to make at least 1 cup dye. Crush ingredients as they boil to extract as much dye as possible. Strain the dye. Most dyes should be used hot. Let each egg sit in the dye until it reaches the desired color. Some dyes will take longer than others to make the desired colored on the egg. Remove the egg and let dry.
Decoupaged Eggs – Tear small pieces of wrapping paper, napkins, stickers, or clip art. Mix equal amounts of glue and water. Paint egg with glue mixture. Place paper on top and then cover with more glue mixture. Let dry.
Patterned Eggs – Place 1 tsp. of cooking oil in dye. Dip the egg. The oil will cause the dye to make an irregular pattern on the egg. Or use melted paraffin or candle wax on part of the egg prior to dipping in the dye. Peel the wax off and you’ll find you have undyed patches where the wax was.
Have fun decorating your Easter eggs. It’s rumoured that the British Easter Bunny has been spotted on the Santander ferry.
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