Natural Egg Dyeing

Yesterday, I spent some time in the kitchen dyeing eggs with the boys. After reading the latest issue of Kaia, I wanted to try some natural dyeing methods this year. We went through the pantry and tried to get creative. This was our method, very similar to the one in Kaia.

1) Put raw eggs in a saucepan and add enough water for the waterline to be about an inch above the eggs.
2) Add in the dyeing ingredient and a good glug on vinegar. We used regular old white vinegar.
3) Cover pot and bring to a boil. Once the water starts to boil, reduce heat to a simmer and simmer, covered, for ten minutes.
4) Drain, and set eggs on a towel to dry and cool.


We used a variety of kitchen items as dye. Some were more impressive than others. From Left to Right as pictured:

1. Turmeric: This was the most vibrant result and was achieved with only a couple of tablespoons of the spice.
2. Chili Powder: Pretty unimpressive. It made it possibly one shade darker, but still white.
3. Yellow Onion Skins: This was by far the most impressive dye job. I only used what few skins were left in the bottom of the onion bag and it came up with that deep orange-brown.
4. Spinach: Also completely unimpressive.
5. Grape Juice: The eggs were boiled in grape juice and a little water. I expected a purple or pink, but came up with a fairly ugly brown, which will wipe right off the egg if you touch it. Bummer.
6. Green Tea: About ten tea bags in a small saucepan produced this light brown-yellow. I was expecting this one to come out greener, but at least it changed the color! 

Other failures were cranberry juice and paprika. I would like to try it with red cabbage, beets, or red onion skins, but didn't have any on hand.