Natural Easter Egg Dyes

This recipe is from former SFDC board member Lisa Claydon.

The dyes are from nature's bounty: fruits, vegetables and spices. This is a fun learning experience and a reminder of the valuable lesson from the children's story "The Ugly Duckling" because a few of the colors that appear to be drab in dye form turn out to be magnificent "swans.

The recipes:

Yellow: Golden beets, lemon zest, yellow marigold leaves, curry powder, turmeric. Please note: using only turmeric will work very well, too.

Blue: Red cabbage. Please note: the dye will look purple but the eggs will turn out blue...really!

Green: Frozen blueberries and turmeric. Please note: this mixture looks like deep hot chocolate, but the eggs turn out green. The more turmeric you use, the more yellow-green; the less the more blue-green. This one was the biggest surprise of all!

Purple: Grape juice

Pink: Beets and red onions

When you make your own dyes, please keep in mind that there are no set rules on how much of each fruit, vegetable or spice (dyeing agents) to use. Experiment!

Put your chopped up dyeing agent(s) in one quart of water with 2 tablespoons of white vinegar. Bring to a boil and simmer for at least 30 minutes. Use a strainer when pouring dyes into bowls. Add hard cooked eggs one at at time. The longer you soak them, the deeper the color. Share your colorful egg photos with us on Facebook!