Dying Easter eggs is always fun—especially if you color them up naturally! In her book, 101 Chicken Keeping Hacks, fifth generation chicken keeper Lisa Steele shares how to create Natural Easter Egg Dyes from items you’ll find in your kitchen and garden.
Steele’s Natural Dyes Color Chart tells you how much purple cabbage to use for bright blue eggs and how much spinach you’ll need to get green eggs—and many more natural color possibilities from your countertop veggie garden.
(Photo credit: © 2018 Peg Keyser/CoopduJour Photography)
The founder of Fresh Eggs Daily, Steele comments on the fun you’ll have using kitchen scraps and spices to create your own natural dyed eggs.
“Chopping and shredding vegetables and making the natural dyes is really fun and satisfying,” she says. “It’s especially fun if you use vegetables you’ve grown yourself.”
It’s not more work than using commercial dyes, and natural Easter egg dye colors are so much more vibrant.
Steel’s favorite natural dye combination is purple cabbage mixed with turmeric, because it creates bright neon-green eggs.
Here are Steele’s top tips for success with natural egg dyes.
- Some of the dye materials online just don’t work, like spinach, coffee and paprika, says Steele.
- White eggs work much better than brown eggs. Brown produce murky colors.
- Vinegar is necessary to make the color stick to the shell.
- Rub a little vegetable oil on the shells after, and they’ll shine and show even more brilliant colors.
In addition to the dye recipes, Steele walks you through cooking the eggs and then dying them. There’s even a technique for boiling the eggs right in the dye water itself. Find out how to reuse the water for subsequent batches, and the best way to store them.