Start saving those onion skins and carrot tops! If part of your Easter celebration includes dyeing eggs, try using natural dyes instead of those laced with chemicals. Natural dyes tend to color your eggs in more earthy, toned down colors, which personally, I like so much better than those garish colors that result from Paas and other commercial dyeing kits. The following is a chart showing what colors you might be able to achieve from various plant materials and after that, I have included some links on the subject as well as an instructional videos. Have fun!!!
COLORS AND HOW TO GET THEM (Remember these colors will be much subdued.)
RED
Lots of Red Onions Skins (boiled)
Canned Cherries with Juice
Pomegranate Juice
Raspberries
Canned Cherries with Juice
Pomegranate Juice
Raspberries
PINK
Boiled beets or Pickeled Beet Juice
Cranberries or juice
Raspberries
Red Grape Juice
ORANGE
Boiled Yellow Onion Skins
Cooked Carrots
Chili Powder or Paprika (these 2 leave neat little dots on the eggs)
BROWN
Strong coffee (brewed or instant)
Black Walnut Shells
Strong Black Tea
GOLDEN BROWN
Dill Seed
YELLOW
Orange or Lemon Peels
Carrot Tops
Celery Seed
Ground Cumin or Tumeric
Chamomile Tea
Green Tea
YELLOW GREEN
Yellow Apple Peels
GREEN
Spinach Leaves
Liquid Chlorophyll or
Blue Green Algae (I take these for energy and just grind up a tab or 2)
BLUE
Blueberry juice
Red Cabbage Leaves
Purple Grape Juice
VIOLET BLUE
Violet blossoms
Red Onion Skins
Hibiscus Blossoms
Red Wine
LAVENDER
Violet Blossoms plus lemon juice
Red Zinger tea
Diluted Purple Grape Juice
How to make the perfect hardboiled egg (Food Network video) Pretty good tips on how to make perfect boiled eggs. The dyeing technique she uses is not related to the natural dyeing method so you can turn this off after that point if you want.
Instructions on how to dye eggs using vegetables and spices. This is a brief video that shows one technique for using natural dyes.
