Plant based Easter egg dye

Hippity-hop-hop. Here comes the Easter bunny! I love watching the rabbits on our property. They are so fun to watch when they chase each other or tease the dog. Due to their high (and free) entertainment value, I try not to get too frustrated with them when they eat my plants. Besides, I figure they lived on this land long before I arrived here.

With Good Friday quickly approaching, I thought it would be fun to share ideas on dyeing Easter eggs with plants. Did you know that folks were dyeing eggs before Easter became a religious holiday?

According Penn State Extension, historians believe the Saxons who lived in northern Germany dyed eggs. They believed the “egg symbolized the rebirth of life in the spring and, therefore, was considered a symbol of fertility”. Catholic churches eventually adopted this tradition of dyeing eggs. Pope Gregory I (circa 540-604) was thought to have merged the “pagan spring festivals of the goddess Eostre with the Christian celebration of Easter”.

Now that we’ve gotten our history lesson out of the way, it turns out that dyeing eggs with plants is pretty easy. Egg shells are mostly made of calcium. When they come into contact with a mild acid, like vinegar, it slightly weakens the shell which then allows dyes to be absorbed.

The basic instructions for dyeing eggs remain the same regardless of the plant material you plan to use. Boil eggs in the same fashion you would to get hard-boiled eggs and set aside. We boil ours for 12 minutes. Then, place your plant material in a covered pan with two cups of water and bring to a boil for ten minutes. Strain and add one teaspoon of vinegar to the colored liquid.

Place the eggs into the colored liquid until the desired shade is achieved. Penn State Extension says this may take 30 minutes to several hours. Carefully remove eggs to dry on paper towels. You can rub a little vegetable oil on them after they are completely dry to enhance the color.

So here’s your shopping list for the grocery store. It’s too bad we aren’t doing this in the middle of our growing season, because it would be fun for young and old alike to go outside and gather material from the yard. For yellow dye - use saffron or turmeric. For blue – blueberries, grape juice or red cabbage. For pink – beets or cranberries. For red – pomegranate juice and red onion skins. For light green – parsley or spinach. For purple – red wine.

To make stripes, wrap rubber bands around your eggs before dipping them. For other designs, you can use flowers or other plant material with the help of pantyhose or cheesecloth. Check out these ideas: http://info.achs.edu/blog/diy-naturally-dyed-easter-eggs.

Here are some food safety tips regarding coloring eggs from the Minnesota Department of Health: http://www.health.state.mn.us/foodsafety/foods/eggs.html. And, don’t forget to compost your leftover plant material. Happy Spring!

Kelley Rawlsky has an M.S. in horticulture and is the director of Bringing People and Plants Together, an organization dedicated to bringing horticulture education and therapy to the community. For more information: PeopleAndPlantsTogether@gmail.com or follow us on Facebook.

Originally published in the Broomfield Enterprise - March 25, 2018