Natural Easter Eggs

I’m always interested in an adventure, to have a “hey, look what I did” moment.  Continuing with my egg soapbox for one more day, here’s something you should definitely try with the next dozen you purchase.

I saw an article on coloring Easter eggs without the traditional dye tablets, instead using spices from your kitchen cabinet.  I had to give it a go.  It’s remarkably easy and the results were beautiful; Mother Earth never ceases to surprise me.

Natural Easter Egg Dyeing

Supplies

hard-boiled eggs (select white eggs for the best results)
vinegar
boiling water
a ceramic cup/mug for each color you’d like to brew
1 Tbsp. each of variety of spices, I used:
a pomegranate green tea bag (dark blue)
ground turmeric (yellow-orange)
dill seed (pale brown)
hibiscus petals (light blue)
chili powder (orange-tan)

Instructions
1. Place 1 Tbsp. of vinegar in each cup. Mix in the tablespoon of spice/herb into the vinegar to form a thick paste. Add boiling water to each cup (fill about 2/3 leaving room for each egg). Place the hard-boiled egg in the cup and let stand until the desired color is reached. Remove egg from dye and gently rinse off any sediment. Refrigerate until eating.

Some notes:
-There are a number of spices that will create a dye solution; experiment, experiment, experiment. I tossed in the teabag to see what happened and it ended up being the darkest blue.
-The timing can vary. The first batch was about 1 hour and the colors were much lighter. I left the others in the dye solution in the refrigerator overnight and the results were much deeper shades.