Coloring Easter Eggs with Natural Dyes

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Seasoned Insight > Seasonal Celebrations > Coloring Easter Eggs with Natural Dyes

Easter eggs can be colored using common foods that do not require purchasing an egg coloring kit and commercial dyes. Although the color may not be bright, it is an option for anyone wanting to color eggs organically.

Natural dyes require that most eggs be kept soaking in natural dye for hours to develop the color desired. Do not eat these eggs, it is advisable to boil extra eggs specifically for eating and refrigerate those eggs immediately. Refer to the chart below for what natural product to use in order to get the desired color. In most cases it is necessary to boil the natural product in a small amount of water to produce the dye required. After creating the dye, strain the dye mixture of all solids and allow the water to cool. Add two to three teaspoons of white vinegar per cup of dye. Submerge each egg in the dye and allow the colors to set until the desired color is achieved. Other products, such as the grape juice, canned blueberries, raspberries, and many other foods can be used in their natural or processed form to create the dyes. Simply place the eggs into each dye created by the foods selected.

Pink	Beets or cranberries or Soak hard boiled eggs in deep red fruit juice. or Soak in frozen raspberries that have been pureed.
Red	Red is a difficult color to create in your kitchen. Save red onion skins and boil with eggs for 1 hour. If you would like a deeper red, remove from stove and leave egg in water overnight.
Purple	Soak hard boiled eggs in purple juice, such as grape juice.
Yellow	Turmeric spice or Ground cumin or Yellow apple peels
Green	Boil eggs with spinach leaves.
Blue	Soak in canned blueberries or pureed frozen blueberries.
Brown	Strong brewed coffee or Chili Powder

If you prefer to decorate eggs without using a colored dye, consider any of the following creative ideas, but after decorating do not eat these eggs:

Using clear drying glue, decoupage paper or colorful string around each egg.
Color hard boiled eggs with felt markers or colorful stamps and stickers.
Use glitter glue for the look of jewels or glue craft jewels on hard boiled eggs.
Decorate with "puffy" paints and create colorful designs.

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