Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs

 

Easter (like all religious holidays turned excuses to buy stuff and consume lots of candy) is a hard one to explain to a three year old. Yes, it's about Jesus, but it's also about eggs and bunnies and chocolate and all kinds of other random things. I've been trying to explain that it's just a convenient time to also celebrate Spring, but I think I'll need to be more intentional about my approach next year.

We have, nevertheless, had some fun with it. I decided to make some natural egg dyeing solutions, rather than use the little kits. Do any of those chemicals really get into the egg? I don't know, but I mostly just thought this would be a fun science experiment - fun for Snick to see that we could take random food from around the kitchen and turn white eggs different colors. It was fun, and it was a LOT of work! To make the solutions, you boil the various ingredients with water and a little vinegar for 30 minutes or so, then cool the solutions off, then let the eggs soak overnight. Red cabbage = blue, turmeric = yellow, and canned beets = speckly brown. Next time we might go to the trouble of using fresh beets to get red, which is actually what we were going for. I buy speckly brown eggs Amish farmers, I don't need to go to all this trouble to get them! 

This morning, it was so exciting to pull out the eggs and see how they turned out! The red was disappointing, especially since it's Snick's current favorite color, but the blue and the yellow! They're so pretty! I wish I could just leave them out on the counter all day so I can admire them. After I took these pictures, we combined some of the blue and yellow dyes, which made this nasty brown concoction that actually turned the brown eggs green! I'll have to take another picture tomorrow.

Here are some links I found helpful, if you're interested in experimenting with natural dyes for eggs.
Serious Eats
The Nourishing Gourmet