What do cabbage and beets have to do with Easter eggs?
Over the last several years, a tradition I have really enjoyed bringing into my home and classroom is dyeing Easter eggs. We often just buy a dyeing kit, but when I’m feeling super industrious, we make natural dyes! This can be a lot more work, but if you’re up for it, it offers you a chance to experiment and produce some stunning colors. What ingredients produce the best colors? The ones I’ve had the most success with are 1. Beets, 2. purple Cabbage, and 3. Tumeric. You can also try red or yellow onion skins, paprika, coffee and blueberries for fun results.
There are many different recipes online, but the best one I’ve found uses just 2 cups of water along with 1 teaspoon of salt and a bit of vinegar, along with whatever gives the color. This recipe combo is simple, but has great results. See full recipe at end for quantities.
Method: Place your ingredient of choice in two cups of water along with 1 teaspoon of salt. Bring water to boil and continue at a rolling boil for 15 minutes. Strain the water and place in a dish. Add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar and allow to cool before using. Children can help add ingredients to the pot to make dyes. This can be done a day ahead, but if so, keep them in the fridge.
Tips: Don’t forget to hard boil your eggs… white eggs produce more brilliant colors.
Tricks: Beyond solid colored eggs, optional ways to engage kids can include making patterns on the eggs with a white crayons before you dye, or wrapping them with rubber bands - riffs on batik. The white crayon is like a magic trick to most children, that they won’t quite understand until after the ‘big reveal’ happens in the dye.
How Long? The longer the better.
Recipe: So, how much cabbage, or turmeric, etc do you put in the water?
Each of these options makes a different color:
1 chopped Beet (skins are fine)
2 cups chopped Cabbage
2 tablespoons Turmeric powder or ¾ cup fresh
2 tablespoons Paprika
2 cups red Onion Skin
2 cups yellow Onion Skin
1 cup Blueberries
