Dyeing Easter Eggs with Nature's Palate

This year, have two Easter hunts, one for dyeing and one for eating! Many foods in the kitchen will make dyes for eggs, and are in fact safer to eat than commercial egg dyes, some of which have questionable health effects. The eggs to the right are dyed with red cabbage and red onion skins. You may also be interested in the range of colors that chickens lay naturally, without dyes!

There are a few simple rules to follow to keep it safe, and then have fun!

Make sure that you use only edible ingredients so you can eat the egg afterwards.
If you are going to leave an egg in a dye for more than an hour, place the dye with egg in the fridge.

There are three basic methods for dyeing eggs naturally:

The boiled method: Put the dyestuff and raw eggs in a pot and add enough cold water until everything is covered. Add a dash of vinegar, cover, bring to a boil, and turn off the heat. Let sit for 30 minutes with the lid still on. Drain, let the water evaporate, and place promptly in the fridge.
The cold method: Place the dyestuff by itself in a pot and cover with water. Add a dash of vinegar, cover, bring to a boil, and simmer for 15 minutes. Let cool (naturally or in the fridge) and put in hard-boiled eggs until the hue desired is reached.
The wrapped method: The egg can be either raw or cooked. The dyestuff is wrapped around the eggs and secured by rubber bands, cheesecloth, or a plastic bag. If the egg is raw, they are just boiled as usual. You can get wonderful marbleized effects this way.

You may want to help the egg take up the dye better. Many ways have been suggested for doing this. The most common is adding vinegar to the dye. You may also choose to use de-chlorinated water or to wash the eggs with soap beforehand. For some dyes, the hue will be darker if the egg isn't rinsed.

A few ways of making cool designs: Add vegetable oil to the dye to get marbleized effects. Draw on the egg with crayons before dyeing. Wrap eggs with rubber bands before dyeing. Place fresh herbs on the egg and secure with cheesecloth before dyeing.

Common materials used for dyes:

Berries: Fresh or frozen, berries will impart pastel hues to eggs. If the cold method is used, the color will be uniform. But you can also use the wrapped method by packing mashed or thawed berries around a hard-boiled egg, placing the egg in cheesecloth or a plastic bag, and putting it in the fridge for a few hours. If the egg isn't rinsed, the colors will be brighter. Raspberries make a pink dye, blueberries a lavender or blue dye, and blackberries a purple dye.

Turmeric: The dried ground roots of turmeric make a very bright yellow. The best results come from the cold method. If left in the dye overnight, eggs can become orangey-gold.

Carrots: Both the roots and the tops of carrots will make an egg light yellow. Either the boiled or cold methods can be used. (or both!)

Green: Dye an egg yellow, then blue.

Red cabbage: This comes as a surprise for some, but red cabbage actually gives the best blue dye for eggs. The cabbage should be cut or torn into pieces (no need to shred) and must be prepared by the cold method. It can dye an egg anything from very light blue sheen to a vibrant indigo if you leave it overnight. Red cabbage is also a pH indicator, meaning it will change color if you make it more or less acidic. Adding more vinegar will make the dye more purple. Adding baking soda will make it greener.

Coffee or black tea: These make a brown egg. The hue can be very dark if you leave the egg in the dye for long enough. Either the boiled or cold methods can be used. (or both!)

Onion skins: You can have lots of fun with these! Different onions will make different effects. Yellow onion skins from the store make brown shades, red onion skins from the store make golden shades, and red onion skins fresh from the garden make green and reddish shades. The wrapped method is usually used with onion skins around raw eggs. The boiled or cold methods can also be used for an even hue. An egg marbleized with yellow onion skins, then dyed yellow than blue makes a lovely pattern that looks like bright moss!

Beets: This seems like an obvious choice for a bright red, but it gives mixed results. The best results come from the cold method, giving a dark reddish-brown, but the egg cannot be rinsed or it will turn a light grayish tan. I have heard a lot of people claim beets give a pink, red, or purple, but they must use their imaginations more than I do. Other methods I have read about is using canned beet juice and pickled beet juice, but I haven't tried these myself.

Things to try:

Cranberries: Supposedly these work the same as other berries, except they dye the egg a darker pink.

Cherries: This sounds like it might be promising for making a red dye if it came from a can…

Annatto: This is the ground seeds of a tropical tree, commonly used as a bright red food coloring. It can sometimes be found in Mexican groceries.

Lemon and orange peel: These are supposed to make light yellow dyes.

Spinach or grass: These sound like promising green dyes.

Grape juice: I've heard this can give a purple dye without any boiling. I've also heard it just turns out gray.

Yellow Delicious apple skins: I've heard the color from this dye described as everything from gold to green to lavender.

Other dyestuffs I've heard of include walnut shells, celery, chili powder, ground cumin, dill seed, hickory bark, paprika, pomegranate juice, radishes, safflower, saffron, blue potatoes, cinnamon, rose petals, and violet petals. Many of these are harder to find where I am and/or are more expensive. They generally give shades of brown or yellow. Pomegranate juice gives red and violets give light blue.