Natural Dye Easter Eggs

Aren't they pretty?

All you need are eggs, vinegar, alum, and your veggies! Chop the veggies, cover with water, bring to a boil. Add alum and boil 10 or so minutes. (My pot was large so I added 2-3 tsp.) Add vinegar (I did 2-3 Tbl.) and turn off heat and cool. Add eggs and bring to a boil again for about 10 minutes. Shut off and let the eggs cool in the liquid.

I strained the liquid and put it in a smaller bowl and let the eggs cool and dye for a few hours.

My colours were a tad different than on the video, who knew? I still think they turned out cool.

The one up front is more periwinkle than blue or lavender (whole beets), the ones with the stripes and scrolls were supposed to be red, but came out more rust (red cabbage), the sage and olive greens came out fabulous and quick! (red onion, no alum, vinegar) Bright yellow (yellow onion with turmeric powder) were also very fast, almost immediate. The tutorial says you can get green from spinach, um no, not in my house. They came out perfectly white. grrr.

I made the stripes by using electrical tape, and the scrolls by painting the eggs with rubber cement, which actually the longer it sat in the solution, the more it was eaten away...just a heads up.

All of the dyes were much more intense before I rinsed them in water and dried them. Tip: PAT them dry, if you rub, the dye rubs off to a pastel colour.

All in all this was a really cool and interesting project. I am not sure a mom with a couple of kids would want to do it though. LOTS of funky fumes from the veggies. Seriously bad ones from the cabbage...ack! Also it took a lot more time than I remember.

That said, it is MUCH better to use the natural than the chemical dyes, but there you go.