Vegetable Dyed Easter Eggs

Surprise!  It’s Springtime!

Well, almost (don’t forget to set your clocks forward this Sunday) and although our much loved “spring” weather has fled our beautiful city, we still have to get ready for everything else that Spring brings (ie. EASTER!)

And since it’s been awhile since we demoed a project, we thought we’d show you how to use veggies to dye your own eggs.

PS. This super easy, fun project is also eco-friendly and non-toxic!

What you’ll need:

• Eggs (not boiled!)
• Vegetable skins: yellow or purple onions, beets, beet greens, tea bags and or tumeric
• Leaves and/or herbs (we like cilantro, parsley, bamboo, geranium, Japanese maple, cilantro, and dill)
• Old pantyhose (aka “tights”)
• 8 quart stock pot
• 3 tbsp vinegar
• Vegetable oil (optional)

Step 1: Bring to a boil water and 3 tbsp of vinegar.  Add 2-4 cups of tightly packed veggie skins.  Simmer for 15 minutes until the water has a gorgeous chestnut color (you can also add the tumeric and tea bags for extra color).

Step 2: Use scissors to cut pantyhose into several smaller sections.  Each should be just large enough to stretch tightly around 1 egg.

Step 3: Grab your herbs and leaves and start wrapping these textures around an egg (this will be the print that is left!) and gently wrap the egg in a piece of the cut pantyhose.

Step 4: Tightly tie off the end of the pouch (we like to use tiny zip ties).

Step 4: Once you have a batch ready (about 12) drop each gently into your boiling veggie water!  Boil for 10 minutes.

Step 5: At 10 minutes, turn the burner off and continue to let the eggs cool in the water for an additional 10 minutes.  This gives them time to really soak up the dye!

Step 6: Use a spoon or soup ladle to scoop out each egg.

Step 7: Unwrap (you might have to use scissors to cut off the pantyhose) and peel off the leaves/herbs…

Step 8: Optional – to really make your eggs beautiful and delicate looking, rub each with a tiny drop of vegetable oil.  It’ll make ‘em really shine!

Voila!  Gorgeous, natural, non-toxic eggs!

And they’re edible (don’t worry – they won’t take on any of the onion flavor – we tested them!)