Solo Mother

Here’s a fun one for you: organic Easter egg dyes

by christina on March 20th, 2008

Apologies to the non-Christians among us, who can at least take heart in the fact that we Christians are running around mixing our pagan Oestre rites of fertility in with the resurrection of Christ… (by the way, all you single mothers struggling to explain the Easter Bunny to your kids? Don’t go the pagan route… really… or you’ll end up explaining why bunnies are a symbol of spring…)

My boss mentioned he wanted to do organic dyes with his granddaughter this year. Lo and behold, what did I find? Instructions for doing just that. I don’t know the original source, it’s on one of my favorite listservs…

Enjoy!

Organic Easter Egg Dyes
Purple: Mix 1 cup of purple grape juice and ½ teaspoon vinegar. Soak cooled eggs in the dye for ½ hour. (Or use 1 cup frozen grape juice concentrate and 1 teaspoon vinegar).

Pink: Soak hard-boiled eggs in cranberry juice or the juice from canned or pickled beets until desired color is reached.

Red: Boil 4 cups of red onion skins and 2 tablespoons vinegar in a quart of water for 30 minutes. Cool to room temperature. Strain
mixture and dye eggs.

Light Peach to Orange: In a pot, mix 1 cup yellow onion skins, 1 teaspoon vinegar, 1 cup water. Boil mixture for ½ hour, cool to room temperature and strain out onion skins. Add cooled eggs and soak for ½ hour.

Orange: Dissolve 4 tablespoons paprika and 2 tablespoons vinegar in a quart of hot water. Cool to room temperature and dye eggs.

Blue: Put 2-3 tablespoons, chopped red cabbage in heat safe cup. Add boiling water and 1 teaspoon white vinegar. Soak cooled eggs until desired color is reached.

Light Yellow: Boil 4 cups fresh shredded carrots and 2 tablespoons of vinegar in a quart of water. Cool to room temperature. Strain
mixture and dye eggs.

Beige/Brown: Soak eggs in strong brewed coffee that has been cooled to room temperature. Or add 1 tablespoon of instant coffee and ½ teaspoon vinegar to 1 cup of hot water. Cool and dye as usual.

Pale Green: Soak eggs in liquid from canned spinach or boil 4 cups fresh spinach and 2 tablespoons of vinegar in a quart of water. Cool to room temperature, strain, and dye eggs.

Easter Eggs photo by Splorp on Flickr

Share This

Related Stories

here’s a hard one: ten things you like about yourself
Can organic milk really assuage that mother’s guilt?
Meals for four for under $15
Get a little something in the Bloggy giveaway carnival!
the magic of movies

POSTED IN: family fun, holidays