Today we had fun coloring eggs with natural dyes. This is a fun alternative to the store bought dyes. My kids enjoyed seeing the colors made from our food.

First, we experimented with blowing out the eggs rather than boiling them. This was another fun, new adventure that both my kids really enjoyed.

To do it, just poke a small hole in each end of the egg with a straight pin. We found having one person hold the egg and pin and then having another tap the end of the pin gently with the back of a spoon worked very well.

We then enlarged the holes by chipping around the hole with the pin.

Blow on one end and the egg white and yolk flows out the other end into a bowl.

Rinse the insides with a little water and then dye the shell.

You’ve got a lasting decoration (well as long as your little one doesn’t break it...).

Okay, so to the dyes...

We used beets for pink, red cabbage for blue, and yellow onion skins for yellow.

We tried spinach and nettle for green, but didn’t have success with that one. You can also use berries if you have any frozen ones stored away from last summer.

Strain into coffee mugs.

Drop in your eggs and let them sit in the dyes until they’ve turned color you like. We found that the red cabbage dye took a long time to color the eggs.

Leave it in there a half hour or longer and you’ll have a beautiful blue. Beets and onions were quick. Perhaps a longer soak in the green would have been successful as well, but my kids didn’t have the patience for that test.

Happy Egg Dying!

–Kimberly

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