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Natural colored Easter eggs at home
Did you know you can dye your Easter eggs with natural ingredients found in your produce bin or spice cabinet? Learn how to naturally color Easter eggs at home in this post.
With a few simple, natural ingredients, you can easily make vibrant and unique hues for your Easter eggs. Learn how to make your own naturally dyed Easter eggs and create a fun and eco-friendly craft!
You can indeed easily color your Easter eggs with foodstuffs that may already be in your fridge, produce bin or storage cellar.
Remember, natural dyes might not produce the same intense colors as artificial dyes, but they can give eggs beautiful, subtle shades. Also, it’s a good idea to experiment with the concentration and combinations of these ingredients to achieve various colors. I like natural methods to color Easter eggs because I find the gentle washes of color to be visually stunning.
The gentle shades are calming and have beautiful tones from Mother Nature. Spring is such a colorful time of the year so using colors that are found in nature comes naturally to me.
In this post I will tell you exactly what you can use to create colorful eggs without the worry of chemical dyes that you’re trying to avoid in your diet or in your home in general.
Grab the vinegar (sorry there isn’t a way to get around egg coloring and void the vinegar smell) and read on for recipes to create your favorite colors from your kitchen to make every Easter basket smile like a spring rainbow.
You may like this post on beautiful DIY spring wreath ideas
Table of Contents
Color: Orange and brown
Save up all those yellow onion skins and let them color your eggs a soft sunny shade of orange or a brown tone. Brown eggs have become so popular in design and styling images, don’t ignore this as one of your easter egg shades!
If you can find them, golden beets (yes beets come in gold) will color up your natural dye water too.
Color: Green
To get a green hue for your Easter eggs, spinach and parsley will get some of this grassy shade onto your eggs. You’ve probably noticed when you simmer spinach that the water turns a pretty spring shade of green. Take advantage of this and use it to color your eggs.
Color: Blue
Blueberries are the obvious choice but purple cabbage also lets off plenty of blue when cooked. You may already have purple cabbage on hand to serve with an Easter ham or pork roast. All produce in your produce drawer may be a hidden gem for egg coloring!
You can shift the water to a purple tone by adding vinegar for a lighter blue or baking soda for a purplish color.
Blue peaflower tea is a rich royal color if you happen to have some on hand. I like it for its debloating effect so it’s always in my pantry.
You may also like 10 best kitchen tools under $20 (that all do more than one job!)
Color: Red or pink
Beets are plentiful in the spring, even the greens will let off plenty of vibrant color because of all the red in the stalks and leaf veins.
Beets likely will be the most intense of all the colors you may be considering making your eggs.
Color: Yellow
Ground turmeric will make an even richer yellow than the washed out yellow that comes with commercial dye. Have you left an egg soak in yellow dye for 6 hours and it’s still sad and pale? When using turmeric, be sure to wear gloves because it will stain fingers, counters and clothing.
If you are a crocheter, check out all the adorable things you can crochet for Easter crochet ideas.
You can make bunny pillows, farm animals, chocolate bunnies and more!
How to get the color you want for your naturally colored Easter eggs
Proportions of spice or fresh produce is as follows:
1 cup of water + 2 Tablespoons of white vinegar and
2 Tablespoons of the ground spice OR 1 cup of fresh produce
- In a medium sized saucepan bring water and vinegar to a boil. Then add ingredients to create the color you want. Lower heat, cover and let it simmer for 30 minutes to fully infuse the water with color.
- Turn off heat and let the pot cool before straining the colored water with a fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth.
- Add the eggs to the color water and allow to soak for at least 30 minutes. Natural color can take longer than commercial dye so keep an eye out for how deep you want the color to be by checking at 30 minute intervals.
- Once desired color is reaches remove eggs with tongs and pat dry with paper towel. You may wish to dry on a rack.