Easter Eggs Dyed Naturally

This year we dyed Easter eggs making homemade, natural dyes.

Many know of the dangers of chemical dyes like Red 40, so this seemed like a no-brainer to give a try!

I hard boiled pastured eggs from a local farmer so we had all brown eggs and one blue. No actual white colored eggs! I figured it would make for an extra interesting eggspiriment! 

I had a whole list of different foods to use for dyes, but only 4 burners on my stove top! 

I chose Parsley for a lime yellowish green dye

Red Cabbage for a blue dye

Spinach for a green dye

and Beets for a reddish orange dye [not pictured ... had to wait for eggs to finish!]

All I did was chop up the food(s) to fit in the pots and cover them with water. 

I brought them to a boil, them covered the pots and let them simmer for a good hour. 

Once they were done, I spooned our homemade dye into our 'dye holders' and added 1 tbsp of white vinegar per each cup of dye.

Red Cabbage Dye

Red Cabbage Dye

You will notice, one you add the vinegar, it alters your dye color. The red cabbage dye went from a dark blue to a pretty purple. The beet dye went from a red to an orange. 

I didn't notice much change with the spinach, which I thought was already dull, and the parsley dye went from a neat neon green to a dull, almost clear color :/

We set the eggs into the dye and left them on the counter. Once the dyes cooled, I put them all into the fridge and let them sit overnight to really soak the color in.

In the morning, I was pretty impressed with our results. Remember, I used different shades of brown eggs and 1 light blue egg :) I think they turned out pretty neat! Nice & earthy!!

When we pulled them out of the dye, we took a Q-tip to them and were able to 'draw' designs on them while they were still wet.

Pretty neat, huh! I would say we will definitely dye our eggs like this from now on. I am interested to try other foods for dyes too; like wild violets and spices!

And hubby has decided we will most definitely need to get a few more chickens that lay white eggs!