With Easter only 2 days away, and without wanting to do a late-night run to the store to scour the shelves for the last PAAS egg dying kit, I instead decided to use what I already had in my kitchen to make natural dyed easter eggs. Besides, it’s more organic than those add-a-cup-of-vinegar-to-the-tablet dyes, and I was able to use up some old frozen fruit. Here’s how I did it…

Using 3 separate small pots on the stove, making sure to have enough water to cover at least one inch over the contents, I brought to a boil frozen blueberries, frozen strawberries, and some fresh spinach. Once each pot began to boil, I reduced to a simmer and let them each cook until the liquid was the desired color. TIP: the longer you let it simmer, the darker the liquid will get (except for the spinach – I was rather disappointed at how light the liquid remained, even after simmering almost an hour). The blueberries took about 15-20 min. The strawberries I let simmer about 30 min.

Blueberries

Spinach

Strawberries

Once the dying liquid was the desired color, I strained the pot into a container as to capture only the liquid. To each container, I added white wine vinegar (approximately 2-3 tsp per 1 cup of liquid). Using hard-boiled eggs that I had made earlier in the day, I slowly put one egg into each container of natural liquid dye (dark blue from the blueberries, red from the strawberries, and what I had hoped to be green but turned out more like a yellow from the spinach).

Coffee-Dyed Easter Egg

I also made dying liquid with paprika: to 1-1/2 cups of hot water (if the water is not hot the spice doesn’t dissolve as well), I added 4 tbsp paprika and 4 tsp white wine vinegar.
and coffee: to 1-1/2 cups of hot water I added 2 giant spoonfuls of instant (very important) coffee and 4 tsp white wine vinegar.

Here’s how they turned out… 

From L to R, top to bottom: spinach left overnight (cool mottled look, but didn't turn out very green or dark), strawberries left overnight, paprika left overnight.

From L to R, top to bottom: blueberries left overnight, blueberries after 30 min, blueberries after 15 min, coffee left overnight, coffee after 15 min.

TIP: you can try different foods and spices to make different colored liquid dyes. For example, try boiled orange peels, raspberries or onion skins; or red wine, grape juice or brewed teas. You can also play around with how long you leave the eggs in the dye. The longer you leave them, the darker they get, and sometimes come out with a cool pattern. If you’re going to leave them overnight, it’s wise to put them in the refrigerator, especially if you plan on eating the eggs. 

Have fun experimenting and Happy Easter!