Easter Eggs

Oh my. Every year we make Easter eggs I think to myself, “this is my favourite way of dying eggs”. And this year, I have to say it again! I LOVED the way these turned out.
To dye these we used raw eggs and boiled them in red onion skins and red cabbage. We used the flowers Julian and Adelaide brought home last week since they were starting to shrivel up. I have a bunch of tulle because of course I do, and we used tiny hair elastics.
As we were doing this we discussed ways to make these more natural. Audrey suggested washing the tulle afterwards, which we did and now we can use it again next year instead of throwing it in the garbage. And Adelaide suggested we use thread instead of elastics because it’s more environmentally friendly. We also love that they are natural because they are edible! So tomorrow night we are having homemade soup and egg salad sandwiches for dinner!

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How to Dye Easter Eggs Naturally

Adelaide and I decided to dye eggs this year! Confession…I have never dyed eggs before. I looked in to it and couldn't help but feel sick thinking about all the chemicals. Also, if your eggs are covered in chemicals, you might not want to eat them afterwards, and I didn't really want to throw away 12 delicious hardboiled eggs! Knowing that I can make icing with natural dyes I knew I could dye eggs naturally too. It would just take a tiny bit more work, but hey, it's worth it when you think about it! 

We wanted 4 colours. Blue, yellow, pink, and green. Let me show you how we did it!

Blue: mash about half cup of blueberries in 1 cup of water and let it sit for an hour or so.

Yellow: add 3 heaping tablespoons of turmeric to about 1 cup water and let it sit as well.

Pink: boil 2 chopped beets in about a cup and a half of water and then simmer for 20 minutes.

Green: boil spinach and collard greens or kale and then simmer for 20 minutes.

Once you're done, pour in to mason jars with a teaspoon of vinegar in each. Some people strain it so there's just liquid, but I left mine with all the bits because I was curious to see what kind of textures it would create. In fact, in the yellow mixture I added yellow onion skins too.

Once the liquid has cooled down, add your hardboiled eggs.  

Let the eggs sit in the dye as long as you'd like. 

Every hour or so, Adelaide and I would check on them and gentle swish the jars.

Every hour they would get darker and darker. So we took some out after 3 hours and then again after 5 hours. Until they were all done!

They turned out so beautiful. I like the kind of matte finish they have after they dry, and I love the organic colour too.  

Adelaide asked me, "now what do we do with the pretty eggs?"

So, I quickly made the next part up. 

"Uh, we put them out for the Easter Bunny and he gobbles them up and in return leaves you and Audrey chocolate as a thank you!". 

But we're actually going to eat egg salad sandwiches for lunch tomorrow with the carrots the Easter Bunny leaves them. Don't worry…they will get chocolate too. 

What about you? What do you do with your dyed eggs?! Or what do you tell your kids the dyed eggs are for? What kind of traditions do you have with your family? I'm legitimately asking. I need some ideas. I suppose I could just "google it". But sharing is more fun!