making natural dyes for Easter eggs

This is our third year making natural dyes with plants for our Easter eggs! This has been such a fun tradition for us over these past years! I will say, our colors have definitely gotten better as we’ve gone along! You can read last year’s post here.

Here’s a little look back at the eggs we’ve dyed in past years:

In 2019 - lots of yellows and blues apparently haha. I don’t think I knew about onion skins and dyeing red/orange colors this year.

In 2020 - I learned about dyeing with onion skins and apparently went heavy on the warm tones. I remember struggling with the beet dyes and the lack of color in them.

In 2021 - lots more vibrant colors! I let some soak overnight in the dye this year. Lots of blues (these are my favorites), lots of greens (these are Alden’s favorite) and lots of dark oranges. Also, the number of eggs I dye each year seems to be growing exponentially.

Pink - beets

Red - beets/red onion skins

Red/Brown - red onion skins

Orange - yellow onion skins

Vibrant Blue - purple cabbage

Yellow - turmeric

Green - purple cabbage/turmeric

Deep Blue/Lavender/Dark Green - hibiscus (different colors depending on how long it soaked for)

Purple/Dark Variated Blue - blueberry

To make the dyes, place about 1 cup water in a pot. Add in 1 tbsp white vinegar and bring to a boil. Add your chopped vegetables (I do a lot of them - like 3 beets or 1/3 head of cabbage or 10 onion skins) and let simmer for about 15 minutes. Strain out the plants. You should have less than 1 cup of dye - probably close to a half cup. This is fine. Do not add water to it at this point. You want the dye to be really concentrated!

Let the dye cool to room temperature or slightly warm, and then drop your hard boiled eggs into the cups of dye. I recommend using disposable cups and writing the name of the dye on the side of each of them. Check them every so often until you reach the desired shade and pull out the dry.

If you’re using other plants to make dyes, let me know! I always look for new ones to try each year!