Thanks to two bloggers working together, Leandro and I were inspired to try our hand at natural Easter egg dyes and it was so, so, much fun!
Boil, boil, toil and trouble
The road to this adventure was winding
Out, out, damn spot (cutting beets)
My friend, Ashley, posted a “fun Easter craft” on the Hot, Cheap & Easy Facebook page recently. It linked to Lisa Leake’s 100 Days of Real Food a terrific blog about her adventures, discoveries and triumphs eliminating processed food from her family’s diet. The original post was Natural Easter Egg Dyes and the guest blogger was Christina Le Beau whose blog, Spoonfed, covers her quest to raise children who are literate about food. Women after my own heart.
Ready, steady, go – note the glorious colors already on the Restoration Farm Eggs
I got really interested in the vegetable colorings that Christina proposed, so I got my beets, turmeric, and blueberries together (could not locate the chlorophyll tablets! help?).
The Mad Scientist at work
The eggs were from Donna Sinetar‘s flock at Restoration Farm (these eggs are spectacular looking and tasting and as free range as you can get, but ironically enough, they are going to be a witch to peel tomorrow for the deviled eggs tomorrow precisely because they are so very fresh — see tips on the Perfect Hard-Boiled Egg) which already came in an array of colors, from light blue, to rosy cream, to creamy white to light brown.
Nubbly, mottled, beautiful color
So we strained and made some wax designs and dipped and made richly beautiful colored eggs, each with their own personality and imperfections that made them interesting. Leandro thought it was the coolest experiment ever and has a real problem with the idea that tomorrow we will peel at least half of them for deviled eggs. A very important lesson in the ephemeral art that is cooking real food….
All my eggs are in one basket!!!!
Coloring Easter Eggs the Natural Way
1 dozen hard-boiled eggs, cooled (make patterns with crayons or wax pencils before dipping)
Three pots, each filled with 2 Cups water
HOT PINK – 1 large beet, chopped (peel can stay on)
YELLOW 1 Tbs turmeric
VIOLET BLUE – 12 oz frozen blueberries
2 tsp white vinegar
crayons or wax pencils
Put one coloring ingredient in each pot. Bring to a boil, turn off and let steep five minutes. Strain into three separate bowls (removing chunky bits*). Add one tsp vinegar to berry and beet bowls. Start dipping and cross-dipping until you achieve the colors you like. Dry in the egg carton and add any decorations you see fit.
Thanks again to Christina and Lisa and Ashley for showing us the way!
* If Christina has a chance to respond I’d like to know what she did with the chunky bits of berry and beet after simmering out the color (I threw them out as they were tasteless and we don’t have a food compost going – yet)….
A Happy Easter to those who celebrate it, and a wonderful Spring to everyone as we commemorate the ancient fertility and renewal celebrations of this time of year.
Hot, Cheap & Easy 
What fun – am going to do this to take to my parents’ for Easter Sunday lunch!
Enjoy! We are going to try some new color sources today…red onion and yellow onion peels. I will keep you “posted” on the developments….
Reblogged this on Amanda's Bequest Bed & Breakfast-a Heritage Farmstay and commented:
I just saw this blog about natural dye for Easter eggs. We are SO going to do this this week. The “gals” have been supplying us with plenty of eggs. I have beet powder (I dried and milled beet slices) and will save some onion skins (be sure to read the comments). I also have some Nori (Seaweed) that I’m going to try for the green. anyway, I thought you might enjoy reading about this natural way to color eggs. I can’t stand food dyes.
Thanks for the reblog and the visit! My experiment tomorrow will be with canned beets as I was not able to find fresh today when I shoppe around….I never liked canned beets, but am willing to give this a try for efficiency’s sake…will keep you “posted.”
¡Qué casualidad Natalia! La semana que viene voy a decorar huevos de pascua por primera vez, asi que tu post me viene fenomenal!! 🙂
¡Tremenda coincidencia! Me alegra mucho que te llegó justo a tiempo….
Wonderful, i am going to send this on to my daughters in law. The natural looking colours are so good.. have fun.. c
They were so pretty…Leandro really enjoyed the whole process. And so did I!!!!
I have not done anything like this is years, the joy of having children.. Leandro sounds like such a lovely young man.. c
He is really a joy….I love this age!!!!
Reblogged this on Hot, Cheap & Easy and commented:
Note to readers on reblog: As you get ready to color eggs for Easter (or your preferred pagan Spring holidays), try natural coloring…we had so much fun with this last year that we will be doing it again this year!
Such pretty, pretty eggs!
Thank you Kathryn! We thought so too!
I have done 1,000 year old eggs. Hard boiled, she’ll cracked and soaked in tea.
Must do them again, it’s been years.
I’ve done those too…we kind of got that effect with a few of our eggs this time…looked conveniently like red spider webs, and since a certain arachnid superhero continues to be popular around here…it’s all good! Happy Easter!
these look great! my mom uses onion skins, but I always forget to save them. I may try beets for the Orthodox Easter!
We are definitely going to try onion skins next year…still need a green coloring option….
I’m so excited to hear that this was a success and that Leandro had so much fun. They look amazing!
What fun, and terrific results! Happy Easter!
Happy Easter to you too!!!
Excellent work!
My 82 year old Greek neighbour uses yellow onion skins and white vinegar to make her eggs go bright red. It sounds odd but it works 😉
I have read about the onion skins…I may try that one next year!!!!