Adventures in Natural Egg Dyes

For Easter this year, I decided to experiment with some natural plant-based dyes. Traditional egg dye is considered to be safe, but can be made from petroleum and/or other things you probably wouldn't want to get in your body. Plus, all of the packaging that is used to wrap the dye and the pollution during production and transportation- seems like a high environmental cost to have some nice looking hardboiled eggs. I thought that there had to be a better way.
Well, let's just say that my natural egg-dying skills are still in the development stage... I did not do any internet research on natural dyes before I started, I just jumped in with some advice from a friend and my previous eating experiences!
I got some red beets thinking they would turn my eggs a wonderful magenta. It was only after letting them soak all night that I finally did a google search and found that red beets turn eggs BROWN. Who would have guessed? My tumeric experience was quite a bit better. I put a few tablespoons of tumeric, along with a few tablespoons of white vinegar in a pot of water and boiled the eggs in it. They came out a pretty fabulous yellow.
I have further heard that blueberries make a nice blue dye, red can be created by LOTS of red onion skins or red wine, LOTS of spinach make a light green and red cabbage makes a nice purple. But, I have not experimented with these myself, so don't hold me to it!
I did learn that you need a lot more of your dye- material than you think to get the color that you are probably after. Also, allow plenty of time to dry, as these natural colors will pretty much jst wipe away if you rub them while wet.
Next year I will continue the experiment, and will probably leave out the red beet inspired brown dye! Pin It Now!