Natural Dye for Easter Eggs: aka Crunchy Eggs

My sister-in-law has self-proclaimed "crunchy" tendencies (think granola) -- which I admire. She's aware and avoids harmful additives in foods and chemicals in products. I try to do as much of that as I can, but she's downright awesome at it. She sent a link around to family members with directions on making natural dye for Easter eggs. The pictures of the eggs were pretty-- very Martha Stewart-y, nestled in soft fabric and diffused lighting. They had much more vibrant colors than the tablet colors you get in dyeing kits and the directions seemed pretty straightforward.

So the boys and I set out this morning to get our crunchy on. I discovered that Clark might have OCD tendencies, based on his immaculate, methodical peeling of the onion, and that perhaps Cal will be more on the ADD side, as he cracked an egg open on purpose, washed his hands in the vinegar and water solution, and experimented with my reaction to his dropping cabbage bits in various places around the kitchen. As I progressed with the directions, I actually found them a little confusing and realized I did some of them wrong. I decided that I'd create this blog entry as a way for me to remember how I did these for if I want to do them again, as well as a less convoluted a tutorial for any of you who want to be crunchy about egg-dyeing.

Two beets, chopped, 4 cups water, 2TBS vinegar, boiled 30 mins 

Great color, but uneven and smeary

4 cups chopped cabbage, 4 cups water, 2 TBS vinegar

Boiled with eggs for 30 minutes

Kind of cool looking, but it didn't work the way it was supposed to

Cooked some of them longer in the cabbage, but scorched them

I reread the instructions and saw that I did it wrong. I was supposed to strain the beets and cabbage after it boiled for 30 minutes and then boil it ANOTHER 30 minutes with the eggs in the dye this time. That makes sense.

We peeled two onions.

Boiled them in 2 cups of water, 1 TBS vinegar for 30 minutes

They turned out burnt sienna-ish. This picture is a little deceiving-- they're browner.

2 cups water, 1 TBS vinegar, 1 TBS turmerac (spice) for 30 minutes

 

Love the result!

Clearly the onion skins and turmeric worked the best for vivid, solid colors. I redid the cabbage and beets, but instead of boiling them another 30 minutes I let the dye cool to room temperature and soaked them in cups like normal egg dyers. I also tried the turmeric at room temperature.

Soaked in room temperature turmeric juice for an hour

Soaked in cabbage water for 30 mins

Soaked in beet juice for 30 mins

Soaked in beet juice for 1 hour

Soaked in combination beet and cabbage juice for 1 hour

Soaked in turmeric juice for about 4 hours

Soaked in beet juice for about 4 hours

Final products, minus the one Cal ate and the scorched ones

Proud boys

They want to have a hunt NOW!

Turns out Calvin loves hard-boiled eggs

This was a fun experiment, even though it lasted longer than I expected. Thanks to my awesome recording of our mistakes and successes, next time we do it, and if any of you do it, won't take so long. The boys loved it, and they're excited to put some stickers on them and color on them with crayons. Cal wants to eat them.

Do you want to eat a bunch of natural, healthily-dyed eggs? Come on over. And Happy Easter!