Homemade Easter Egg Dyes

Easter is almost here, it’s time to dye some eggs for Easter. When I was growing up my mother made her own dyes for the eggs. With 4 children my poor dad had a lot of hard boiled eggs for a while. My mother would boil 2 dozen eggs and we would each have 6 eggs to decorate each. This time of year I felt bad for my father because nobody liked cold hard boiled eggs, for the next 2 weeks all he ate was eggs. He never minded eating them. He would just smile and say great looking eggs. I miss those days and my father who is no longer with us, but I still decorate a few eggs each year at Easter time. Use this time to decorate your own eggs with your children or grandchildren.

Recipes for Homemade Dyes for Easter Eggs

1.       Red Dyes: 2 cups of beets grated. (I used my canned beets and I mashed them). 1 Tablespoon of white vinegar and 2 cups of water. If you don’t have beets try raspberries chopped. Boil for 15 minutes before placing your hard boiled eggs in the dye. The longer you let them sit in the dye the darker the color.

2.       Yellow Dyes: 3 large yellow onion skins chopped up. 1 Tablespoon of white vinegar and 3 cups of water. Boil for 15 minutes before placing your eggs in the dye. Again the longer you let them sit in the dye the darker the color.

3.       Blue dyes: 1 pound blueberries crushed. 1 Tablespoon of white vinegar and 2 cups of water. Boil for 15 minutes before placing eggs in the dye. The longer you let the eggs sit in the dye the darker the color.

4.       If you want to get creative place some rubber bands around the eggs before dying to creative a neat design. We also used crayons to write on them before dying the eggs. The dye will not stick to the crayons. Sometimes after the dying was done we would use markers or stickers to add a little more detail to the eggs.

5.       Adding the vinegar to the dyes helps the colors set better. You can also mix and match colors to create different colors. Just use your imaginations and have some fun.

6.       Since we have our own chickens our eggs are brown. You can dye brown eggs too, it just takes a little longer for the color to appear and the red turns out to be a darker brown. This is what I used when I dyed my eggs for this post.

Easter is about being together with your family. Making Easter Eggs is a fun way to spend time with your children and grandchildren. Everybody loves Easter Eggs and decorating them. Instead of buying the expensive dyes why not make healthy dyes instead with food you probably have at home already. I hope you enjoy my homemade dyes from Suzie Homemaker.