One of my fondest childhood memories of Easter is dyeing Easter eggs in my grandmother’s kitchen, surrounded by family, while snacking on grandma’s famous Paska (Polish Easter bread).
I recall the sweet, yeasty taste of the homemade bread, the smell of the local pickerel or ham we’d enjoy later at dinner, the whole boiled eggs carefully prepared for the dyeing and decorating – yet, in the middle of all of these wholesome parts of such a special celebration, a cardboard box is ripped open, some packets of chemical dies are dumped down onto the counter and then carefully stirred into warm water with vinegar.
It wasn’t until I was in high school or university that I started to wonder if the chemical dyes on our egg shells could affect our health. Often those bright colours would indeed make their way inside the shell and onto the actual egg.
I now have children who also love the excitement of decorating Easter eggs as part of our celebration. I’m thankful that we’ve learned the skill of making homemade plant and food-based dyes that have beautiful results and provide us some peace of mind.
Download our Natural Easter Egg Dye tutorial. Check out a whole food revamp of my lovely grandma’s easter bread recipe, and head back in time for our Natural Easter Basket Stuffers post.
This post was featured at Real Food Forager and Nourishing Joy.
It was shared as a part of Montessori Monday and Thank Goodness It’s Monday, Fat Tuesday, and Simple Lives Thursday, Fight Back Friday, Unprocessed Fridays, and Simply Natural Saturdays.
I like how your photo illustrates how the different materials dye the eggs. Hello from Thank Goodness It’s Monday.
Thanks Melissa! And thanks for stopping over from Nourishing Joy!
Hi there,
I’m a tad confused with your post regarding dying eggs.
Do i first boil the eggs for the required time, then place them in a separate bowl of water thats been dyed as instructed above? For example, do i make the tumeric dye concoction in a bowl and then place the boiled eggs inside this bowl? if so for how long?
By the way, the colour of your eggs are amazing
Thank you
Maria
Hi Maria, thanks for visiting! The very first step is listed under ‘Prep’ and is to boil your eggs as you usually would. You can do this on a different day, or the same day as the dyeing.
The length of time you leave the eggs in the dye is up to you – the longer you leave them, the deeper the colour will be. You can check the colour now and then , and when you’re happy with it, remove the egg from the dye. The same thing goes for the dyes themselves – you can make them more concentrated if you’d like to aim for a deeper colour, and you can experiment with different foods than those listed in our tutorial.
Have a great weekend!
Thanks Kris, I cant wait to try some of these. The colours look amazing. I’ve seemed to have botched the batch last year. I boiled everything together. Needless to say, the eggs were not edible 🙂
Your method sounds a lot more intriguing
I’d love to hear how it goes, Maria. Have a great time dyeing your eggs this year!