Using herbs and food to dye Easter eggs gives them beautiful, earthy color—without scary chemicals. And it’s surprisingly easy.
How to Make Natural Easter Egg Dye
1. Hard-boil eggs.
2. Bring each dye ingredient (listed below) to a boil with 2 cups of water; strain the dyes into cups and allow to cool.
3. Add 2 tablespoons of vinegar to each cup of dye.
4. Coloring Easter eggs: Dip the eggs into the cups, submerging completely and leaving in dye until they reach the desired color—the longer in the dye, the deeper the color. If a color doesn’t darken as much as you’d like, set the cup with the dye and the egg in the refrigerator for a few hours. Try using two dyes on one egg to create different colors, or dye half of each egg a different color.
Gold: Handful of yellow onion skins
Yellow: 2 tablespoons turmeric; 1/2 cup dried marigolds, goldenrod or cosmos; or a handful of carrot tops
Green: Handful of coltsfoot
Blue: Handful of woad (an herb in the mustard family) or 2 cups chopped red cabbage (for best results, add these botanicals to the water while hard-boiling eggs)
Pink: 2 cups chopped beets
Purple: 1 cup frozen blueberries
Brown: 2 tablespoons coffee grounds or 4 black tea bags