Egg Dyes- Naturally!

The kids and I dyed Easter eggs- Naturally!

Ok, so they all didn't turn out as vibrant as the store-bought dyes, but we had a great time making them. I did use brown eggs, (local, organic from the local farmers market) so the eggs didn't turn out as great as they could if I used white eggs. But I refuse to buy storebought eggs, the laying hens are treated so inhumanely, you can read more here. Pluse local, organic eggs have SOOOO much more nutrition, it's almost a no-brainer for me.

Back to the egg dying-

Get the kids involved, it's always more interesting. Each of the kids got to make predictions about our egg dyes. While we waited for the dyes to boil, the kids and I wrote down our educated guesses about what color each ingredient would dye the eggs.
We predicted the following:
carrots=orange
orange peels=orange
spinach=green
blueberries=blue
chili powder=red
tomatoes=red

But instead, only a few colors stuck, and the blueberries, and chili powder did the best. The blueberries made a purple, and the chili powder did come out reddish, and it was fun to see as the eggs change before our eyes.  Things I might do next time to make this project work better is, boil the dye longer, and maybe even puree the dye (spinach, carrots, etc) after it's been boiled for a while, then submerge the eggs into that and see if it turns out better.

Pictured below:
Carrots, Spinach, Oranges
Blueberries, Chili Powder, Tomato


My 6-year old wrote the labels;)

Here is the basic steps to making your own dyes at home:


1. Boil about 2 cups of water then add your "natural coloring". Let it boil long enough so the color leaches into the water.
2. Pour the strained liquid into a glass container, add a tablespoon or 2 of vinegar to the hot coloring, then submerge your already boiled eggs.
3. Let the eggs soak until' brightness of color is achieved. Store in refrigerator.

I found this list online that had suggestions to get the different egg colors.

If you choose to dye your eggs naturally, how did they turn out? Do you have any suggestions, or which natural egg dye did best?