Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs

Use Ingredients from Your Garden for Unusual Easter Egg Finishes

Do You Know How to Dye Eggs Using Kitchen and Garden Edibles?

Dyeing eggs with items found in your kitchen and garden produces subtle and beautifully patterned edible eggs. My eggs came out looking like marble. Experiment for different looks.

This is a great project to do with the kids. It's a science experiment that makes people realize not everything has to come in a kit or mix. It's back to nature at its best!

Just be sure not to use any toxic plants if you source items from your garden as I did.

Naturally-dyed Easter eggs are eggstra-fun because:

The eggs are dyed while they boil;
The results are unpredictable, so it's fun experimenting;
The dye media are (mostly) free;
The eggs are less likely to crack while boiling because they're cushioned.

All Natural Easter Egg Materials

1 doz. raw eggs
Cheesecloth or other thin loose-weave fabric cut into twelve 6-inch squares
Kitchen or any un-dyed twine
Scissors
Small pans to dye the eggs in - a separate pan for each color
White vinegar
Dye media - the best items I found were (from best down)

1. Red onion skins
2. Saffron threads
3. Flowers from a (non-toxic) tree in my garden
4. Brown onion skins
5. Red cabbage leaves

Optional - masking items to create un-dyed areas like small white flowers, small ferns and leaves
Kitchen tongs
Paper towels
Optional - vegetable oil for sheen

Dyeing the Easter Eggs

Lay dyeing media on one of the cheesecloth squares. Put a raw egg in the middle. Gather the corners of the square and tie with kitchen twine.

Cut off excess cloth. Place bundle in pan for dying.

When all eggs are bundled and in the pans, cover the eggs in each pan with tap water. Add about a teaspoon of white vinegar to each pan to help set the colors. Set the pans on the stovetop.

Turn on the heat. Bring water to boil and turn down the heat to simmer for 15 minutes.

Remove pans from stove. Use tongs to lift each egg from the water and place on paper towels to drain.

From left to right: red onion skin dyed eggs (They look pretty blah until they're unwrapped, but then Wow!); Saffron threads; (non-toxic) flowers from the garden.

Run each bundle under water to cool and unwrap. Set aside to dry.