Tips from the Easter Bunny on Natural Egg Dyeing

A couple of lessons learned about natural easter egg dyeing....

• Boil the eggs with the dye ingredients to get brighter colors, faster.  I made the mistake of boiling the eggs ahead of time and then reading the instructions.
• The cold method (submerging pre-cooked eggs in cold dye) works fine but it can take awhile.  Turmeric (a spice) colored my eggs yellow pretty quickly, but with beets and cabbage, it took a couple hours of soaking in the fridge.
• If you are dyeing eggs with kids, you'll probably want to use the cold method but keep in mind that it won't work as fast as PAAS.  Plan another activity to keep the kids occupied while their eggs are coloring!
• Adding vinegar to the natural dye helps set the colors, however I noticed that my pink eggs (from beet juice) faded over time to a pinkish brown.
• The color you get from curry powder probably depends on the type of curry you have.  I saw a gorgeous orange egg dyed with curry but mine turned out yellow and since I already had yellow eggs from turmeric, I was less than impressed.  If anyone knows what variety of curry makes orange eggs, let me know!
• My chili powder created brown eggs, instead of the reddish tone I was hoping for.  If I had wanted brown eggs, I would have bought brown eggs.

What's your favorite natural egg dye?  Do you have any  tips to share? 

Comments

[Niko Schafer]

My favorite egg-dying method is one I learned in Latvia 18 years ago. Wrap dark onion skins around each uncooked egg, secure it with string (sewing thread wound all round it works great), and then boil them as you normally would a batch of eggs. When it's done, unwrap the egg and observe the beautiful color and patterns. Brown skins transfer color well; I've had more trouble with red onion skins.

[Kelly the Kitchen Kop]

These look gorgeous! I decided this year that it's our last with the fake nasty dyes. (Don't worry, we don't eat the eggs after putting the nasty fake colors on them, I'm too afraid of a little bit seeping through an unseen crack.) I love this great alternative! :)

Kelly

[Micaela]

Niko - Thanks so much for sharing your egg-dyeing technique from Latvia!! I'm going to try this one for sure!

[Carol]

After dying, rub the eggs with a tiny bit of cooking oil. It gives them a sheen that brings out the color, no matter how you dyed them, and they just look prettier.
Don't rub too long or you'll rub the color off.

[Micaela]

Great idea Carol! I'll try that next year (this year's eggs are all eaten up!)

[Phentermine 37.5]

SMART TIP: Instead of watching TV, playing video games, or chatting online, go outside or pick up a good book. The best way to save electricity is not to use it at all.

[MH]

What did you use for the blue ones?

[Christine]

Growing up we dyed our eggs in a similar manner to Niko. We would wrap parsley around the eggs and secure the herb with pantyhose then boil the eggs in water filled with onion skins. This results in some really beautiful eggs!