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Naturally Dyed Eggs
By: Abigail Shaeffer
@abbi_shaeffer

Dyeing eggs has always been one of my favorite spring traditions. When I was younger, my mom would pull out crayons and little boxes of food dye and we would spend the afternoon staining our fingertips. I loved seeing the egg get pulled out of the jar a brand new, vibrant color. A few years ago, while stuck under quarantine, I started experimenting with natural dyes. The process is slightly longer than the one I did as a child, but I really enjoyed the slow intentionality of collecting the ingredients, preparing the dyes, and soaking the eggs. The natural colors turn out differently than the artificial ones—they’re a little more subtle—but they work perfectly as a more refined, natural version of the tradition I’ve loved for years.

To keep things simple, I chose three types of dye for this project: red cabbage, avocados, and turmeric. I’ve also seen people use walnuts, acorns, red beets, and onion skins. I used both brown eggs and white eggs, as brown eggs will result in deeper jewel tones while white eggs produce pastel colors. Don’t be afraid to experiment when you try this for yourself! Try mixing up the amount of time you allow the eggs to soak and even combining different colors to get new results. In the end, you’ll end up with a pretty rainbow of naturally-colored eggs with which to decorate your home for spring.

Red Cabbage

For this dye, I took an entire head of red cabbage and diced it into small pieces. After combining these pieces with the water, I let them simmer for an hour and then soak overnight. In the morning, I divided the dye into three parts. One part I left just as is for a light blue. To another part, I added four tablespoons of vinegar to make a reddish pink. For the final part, I added five tablespoons of baking powder to make a deep green teal. This last shade was definitely my favorite, and it turned out the best on both white and brown eggs. I only soaked the teal eggs for a few hours before they were very pigmented. The plain red cabbage made a very light blue, only visible on the white egg even after being soaked overnight. The vinegar and cabbage didn’t seem to work at all, though I’ve seen other tutorials where it did result in a fuschia color. I played around with the lengths I let the eggs soak for a range of colors, from dark to light. I love the ombre of teal colors this created!

 

Supplies:

  • 1 head of red cabbage

  • 3 quarts of water

  • 4 tablespoons vinegar

  • 5 tablespoons baking powder

  • Large pot for simmering

  • Jars for dyeing

  • hard-boiled eggs for dyeing

Avocado

Like many other people, I was surprised to learn that the skins and pits of avocados release a peach-pink colored dye when boiled and soaked. The color is very faint, and only really showed up on the white eggs. I took the pits and skins, made sure they were nice and clean, and then simmered them for two hours. I then let them soak overnight, and in the morning, the dye was a pretty orange pink. Vinegar helps the dye to affix better to the eggs, so after adding it, I soaked white eggs most of the afternoon and overnight. They came out a pastel colored pink-peach.
 

Supplies:

  • 5-7 avocados worth of skins and pits

  • 2 quarts of water

  • 3 tablespoons of vinegar

  • Large pot for simmering

  • Jars for dyeing

  • Hardboiled eggs for dyeing

Turmeric

Turmeric is great for dyeing anything, as evidenced by the bright yellow spoon in my kitchen reserved solely for cooking curry. White eggs soaked in turmeric overnight come out a bright, pretty yellow, and the brown eggs came out more of an orange. The turmeric doesn’t need to soak as long as the other dyes, so I just boiled the water, stirred in the spice and vinegar, and then let the eggs sit overnight. Like the avocado, the vinegar helps the dye to affix better to the egg. Once I had all three colors, I put a few of the eggs in multiple different dye jars to get light greens as well. These golden colored eggs are definitely among my favorite from the process! 

 

Supplies:

  • 5 tablespoons of ground turmeric

  • 2 quarts of water

  • 3 tablespoons of vinegar

  • Large pot for simmering

  • Jars for dyeing

  • Hardboiled eggs for dyeing

Check out @abbi_shaeffer on instagram to enjoy more of her amazing photography, recipes & more!

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