DIY Easter Egg Dyes
Today I set out to make a lasagna with what I believed were some beet greens from the freezer. On closer inspection, I found that they were actually a bag of beet stems, the greens and roots already cut off and used. At that, they appeared to have thrown in the freezer on their last legs, as they were stringy and unappetizing.
I thought it might be fun, and in the spirit of the Easters we used to have as kids, to try out making my own egg dyes. We don't actually decorate for Easter around here, but I thought it would be fun to try just dying some hard-boiled eggs that we could eat later in the week.
In reading this post, I thought I would also try a batch with the morning's left-over coffee grounds.
To start out, I extracted the colors from the beet stems and coffee grounds by boiling each rapidly. I wanted to be able to compost the stems and grounds after, so I didn't add the other ingredients at this point. Fairly soon it became clear that the beet stems were not going to create a pleasant color, so I discarded that batch and boiled up a small pot of turmeric to try out a yellow egg, and some paprika for a red one.
Once I had some concentrated colored water from each batch, I put three eggs in three mason jars and poured one color in each jar. I added two tablespoons of vinegar and one teaspoon of salt to each jar, and let them steep.
Soaked overnight, and perhaps with some pressed flower or design on them, these could look really nice.
Anyways, it was a fun experiment using things we had around the house, and with a little more planning and care, could have a lot of potential for nice results. Check out this website for a tutorial with more details, and more colors!
Have you made your own egg dyes? Leave a comment!
I thought it might be fun, and in the spirit of the Easters we used to have as kids, to try out making my own egg dyes. We don't actually decorate for Easter around here, but I thought it would be fun to try just dying some hard-boiled eggs that we could eat later in the week.
In reading this post, I thought I would also try a batch with the morning's left-over coffee grounds.
To start out, I extracted the colors from the beet stems and coffee grounds by boiling each rapidly. I wanted to be able to compost the stems and grounds after, so I didn't add the other ingredients at this point. Fairly soon it became clear that the beet stems were not going to create a pleasant color, so I discarded that batch and boiled up a small pot of turmeric to try out a yellow egg, and some paprika for a red one.
Once I had some concentrated colored water from each batch, I put three eggs in three mason jars and poured one color in each jar. I added two tablespoons of vinegar and one teaspoon of salt to each jar, and let them steep.
Tutorials online tell you that the longer you let the eggs steep, the deeper the color will get. In this case, I let them steep for a few hours. The results? Other than the coffee, which turned the egg a nice brown, the colors were quite light. I would think that they would have benefited from steeping overnight.
Anyways, it was a fun experiment using things we had around the house, and with a little more planning and care, could have a lot of potential for nice results. Check out this website for a tutorial with more details, and more colors!
Have you made your own egg dyes? Leave a comment!
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