Natural Egg Dyes!
Folk historians have the Pennsylvania
Dutch originating the Easter Bunny tradition in the eighteenth century,
dying eggs with roots, flowers, grasses, bark and berries. You can follow
in this easy, fun tradition with sometime unpredictable results.
Blown or hard boiled eggs (remember that
sometimes the flavor of the dye will seep through. If you don't mind cabbage
flavored eggs its no problem)
1 tbsp vinegar to 1 cup water to rinse off
the oily film on some commercially prepared eggs
lots and lots of newspaper to catch drips
and spills
old clothes (these are dyes and stains after
all!)
glass or enamel pot to prepare the vegetable
materials for dye
old egg carton or refrigerator racks for
drying the eggs
plastic spoons for dipping and fishing the
eggs out of the dye
cups or containers for the dyes
Here's a quick list of materials and their
colors
| rusty brown | chili powder |
| pale blue | fresh red cabbage w 1 tsp of alum for each cup of dye |
| bright yellow | turmeric w/ 1 tsp vinegar/1 cup dye |
| yellow orange | onion skins |
| pale blue | red onion skins |
| pinkish red | beets |
| beige to brown | expresso |
| dark blue gray | blueberries |
| reddish purple | raspberries |
| dark bluish purple | blackberry |
My notes: usually too much natural pectin
in straw berries and I never had too good results
paprika too dull
spinach too pale
alder catkins--beautuful green. wouldn't
eat the egg?
Experiment!
General Procedure
Chop, shred or crush fresh material. One
cup of material to four cups of water
Place in a glass or enamel or ceramic pot
to simmer for about 30 minutes. Strain/filter to remove dyestuff
I don't cook berries since it activates
the pectin and makes the dye like gelatin. Just crush and strain the juice.
Frozen berries work great!
Decorate eggs with crayons for a "resist"
effect.
Pour dye into cups or put eggs into pan
The longer they set, the deeper the color
If you don't want the hassle of putting together your own, try the Adirondack Park Visitor Interpretive Center in Newcomb's Natural Egg Dye Workshop on April 19th 10-2pm. Call the VIC in Newcomb 582-2000 for more information.
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