Easter Eggs with DIY Natural Dyes

This weekend, I, along with my trusty assistant, Bella Boo, experimented with dying eggs using natural dyes—ie: natural food items I had around the house. I did a little bit of reading which confirmed that it was possible and then jumped in head-first without really knowing what I was doing. From looking through my refrigerator and cupboards, I found two types of natural ingredients that I could use to create the dyes: juices/drinks and spices. These are the items I came up with: frozen blueberries, carrot juice, carrots, spinach, coffee, Black Tea, Passion Tea, Liquid Chlorophyll, Chili Powder, Paprika, Tumeric and Mustard. I purchased bleached white eggs and grape juice.

Here is my unscientific and unstudied approach. Step one, I boiled the eggs.

JUICES/DRINKS: In separate cups, I poured one cup boiling water over the Black Tea and the Passion Tea, added one tablespoon vinegar (to help the dye adhere to the shell) and added the hard-boiled egg. I made a cup of coffee in my coffee pot, poured it in a glass, added one tablespoon vinegar and a hard-boiled egg. For the juices, I poured one cup of juice into each glass, added one tablespoon vinegar and a hard-boiled egg. I took about a half a cup of frozen blueberries and added in a cup of hot water. Once it had sat for a bit and the water became very purple, I scooped out the blueberries, added the vinegar, and then a hard-boiled egg. For the spinach and carrots, I cooked them for about 15 mins (which was all the time I had) in separate pans. When I didn’t see any color in the water, I scrapped this idea and went with Plan B. I found carrot juice in my refrig and used it instead; and for green, my eyes settled on liquid Chlorophyll which I decided to try.

As we went along, Bella reminded me to add the vinegar to each one, laughed each time I spilled some (I was pouring from a gallon container into a tablespoon), and sampled the grape juice. I highly recommend having a giggling assistant to entertain you along the way!

SPICES: For each one, I poured one cup boiling water into a glass with two teaspoons spice, then added one tablespoon vinegar and one hard-boiled egg. The spice waters had a lot of color, except for the Mustard water. So I added in about two tablespoons of table Mustard into the water mixture and it became a nice yellow color.

Twenty-four hours later, a super-excited Bella couldn’t wait to see the eggs. I pulled the eggs out of the refrigerator, and one by one we rinsed them off. Three of the homemade dyes had not worked: mustard, carrot juice and Chlorophyll. As I tried to rinse off the grape juice egg, the dye rubbed off, but not evenly, leaving a beautiful interesting pattern to our delight!

I think if I would have boiled the carrot juice egg in the juice, it would have worked—as I have been assured by moms that carrot juice stains! That will make for an interesting experiment another year. At that time, if I am determined to try mustard again, I think I will coat the egg in table Mustard and then let sit, rather than diluting the mustard in water. I know that Mustard stains clothes, so there’s got to be a way to use it!

Overall, I think the dyes worked pretty well. The Tumeric yellow egg was the boldest and the blueberry juice produced a beautiful blue hue. For richer color, I will make stronger coffee and tea next time. Our experiment was fun—the process of creating the dyes and the surprise of seeing what the eggs would look like once rinsed off.

Since four of the eggs were still white, I gave Bella a highlighter and some markers and she decorated three of them while I placed the remaining egg in blueberry juice. Two of her eggs were abstractly decorated to resemble “dinosaur eggs”  inspired by the grape juice egg pattern. Her last egg, she decorated into this super cute chick—all her idea and execution. She’s quite creative, don’t you think?

This article has some great information about using vegetables as egg dyes and this blog has some great pictures and information about their experience using natural dyes to dye their eggs.

Are any of you planning on making Easter eggs this year? What process will you use?