Earthly Easter Eggs Natural Egg Dyes

If you are interested in a greener Easter this year, dyeing your own eggs with environmentally friendly ingredients is a fun and safe way to celebrate.

I started by looking into what others had used successfully. Vegetables, spices, and juices were at the top of everyone’s lists. Some of the materials I used worked best when I boiled them with the eggs, while others worked great made ahead of time so I could soak the boiled eggs in the liquid overnight. Of course, with both methods, the longer the egg soaked, the more intense the color became. To help your newly-discovered color adhere to your egg, add about a teaspoon of white vinegar to it. The most success I had came with beets, turmeric, and the juice drained from organic canned blueberries. Drawing creative designs with white crayon before dyeing our eggs, or using colored crayon after dyeing our eggs, was especially fun for my daughter. We also wrapped our eggs with rubber bands to create patterns before dyeing them. Just remove the bands after you reach your desired color to reveal the contrasting stripes.

Here are some suggestions to get you started with your own creative experiments: • Yellow: turmeric, cumin, celery leaves, green tea • Orange: paprika, chili powder • Red: canned cherries with juice, lots of red onion skins • Pink: beets, cranberry or pomegranate juice, raspberries • Lavender: blackberries, grape juice • Blue: canned blueberries with juice • Green: spinach, parsley • Brown: coffee (instant or strongly brewed), black tea • Black: blackcurrant If creating your own colorants does not sound exciting enough for you this Easter, you can purchase some great natural colorings online or possibly at your local organic food store. One online company I found is Seelect. They have natural, organic, vegan-friendly, and gluten-free food colorings that can be purchased at www.SeelectTea.com.

Whether you choose to make your own food colorings or buy them, keeping it earth-friendly this Easter is a good decision. Not only will the planet be healthier, but your body will be as well. Artificial colors are made up of some very nasty ingredients. Coal tar and petrochemicals are only a couple of those ingredients. Medical studies have linked artificial colors to cause nausea, vomiting, high blood pressure, skin rashes, hyperactivity, breathing problems such as asthma, learning disabilities, and other allergic reactions. Some are even suspect of being a neuron-toxic hazard and linked to osteoporosis and cancer.

My experimental egg colors did not glow with neon colors but glistened in gorgeous muted earthy hues. My daughter and I had a fun time guessing which ingredients would give us the best results, and the extra time we spent together on the holiday was wonderful. As responsible human beings on this shared planet, we need to make little changes in our daily, weekly, and even yearly routines, and that includes holidays. The simpler the change is to implement into our lives, the easier and more likely it will be to keep those changes. If experimenting in your kitchen with plants and spices is not your idea of a simple change in your Easter habits, consider purchasing natural colorings that will be better for you, your loved ones, and our beautiful Earth.