How to Make Natural Egg-Dyes

Ingredients:

Any number of hollowed white eggs
One pot per color of dye
1 Tbsp. white vinegar per cup of strained dye liquid (optional)
Bowls or egg cartons for drying dyed eggs
Paper towels

Don’t be too precious about this process. It’s meant to be fun for you and your kids, so proportions aren’t exact and don’t need to be.

1. Hallow…desired amount of white eggs

Start by gently washing the eggs with soap and water. Take a pin and delicately push it into one end of the egg making a whole about the size of an eraser. Stick the pin in the hole and wiggle it around to break the yolk. Next, make a pin size hole on the opposite end. Finally, empty the contents of the egg into a bowl and reserve in the refrigerator for up to two days. We like to use the egg innards in this two-ingredient pancake recipe.

2. Shop …for the veggies and other items that you’ll use for creating your dyes.

Some of these items can be gathered over the days running up to your egg-dying extravaganza.

• Red cabbage (blue, almost-indigo dye)
• Red onion skins (lavender or red)
• Yellow onion skins (orange or gold)
• Ground or cut turmeric (yellow)
• Red Zinger tea bags (lavender)
• Beets (pink; more of a brownish red the longer you leave eggs in this dye)

Err on the side of more veggie matter rather than less when creating your dyes.

You can use juices and beverages for dying, too.

• Grape juice
• Cooking wine or old red wine
• Leftover coffee
• Juice from pickled beets

Rule of thumb: If you’d freak out upon spilling a certain liquid on a white shirt, then it’s going to make a decent dye. These ingredients may be mixed in any combination for some great effect, too. We encourage you to experiment and see what you come up with!

3. Chop …your veggies and prepare your dyes.

We found that chopping fine, but not too fine, worked best. We used roughly 4 cups veggie matter for 4–6 cups water. Drop the veggies into the water and bring to a boil, turn heat down to low and simmer, covered, for 15–30 minutes. The dye is ready when it reaches a hue a few shades darker than you want for your egg. Finish by adding white vinegar right after simmering.

4. Pop …your eggs in the dye.

Strain the veggie matter out and set your hollowed eggs in the dye for several hours (or even over night). This will result in clean, crisp colors. After removing eggs from the dye, try draping wet onion skins over the eggs for an hour or two to take advantage of the onion skins’ cool patterns. Red cabbage would work as well.

You can experiment also with different amounts of vinegar, too. More vinegar will leave a thick film on the eggs that you can leave on and let dry, making them look gnarly and wonderful. Or you can rub the film away with a paper towel to find interesting patterns beneath, as the veggies and vinegar will soak into different parts of the egg. Dry your eggs in bowls or eggs cartons over night.