Using herbs and food to dye Easter eggs gives them beautiful, earthy color—without scary chemicals. And it’s surprisingly easy.
How to Make Natural Easter Egg Dye
1. Hard-boil eggs.
2. Bring each dye ingredient (listed below) to a boil with 2 cups of water; strain the dyes into cups and allow to cool.
3. Add 2 tablespoons of vinegar to each cup of dye.
Coloring Easter Eggs
Dip the eggs into the cups, submerging completely and leaving in dye until they reach the desired color—the longer in the dye, the deeper the color. If a color doesn’t darken as much as you’d like, set the cup with the dye and the egg in the refrigerator for a few hours. Try using two dyes on one egg to create different colors, or dye half of each egg a different color.
Gold: Handful of yellow onion skins
Yellow:2 tablespoons turmeric; 1/2 cup dried marigolds, goldenrod or cosmos; or a handful of carrot tops
Green: Handful of coltsfoot
Blue: Handful of woad (an herb in the mustard family) or 2 cups chopped red cabbage (for best results, add these botanicals to the water while hard-boiling eggs)
Pink: 2 cups chopped beets
Purple: 1 cup frozen blueberries
Brown: 2 tablespoons coffee grounds or 4 black tea bags
