Common foods are an alternative to the pre-packaged dyes to make
beautiful Easter decorations
by Julie Engelhardt Special to South Valley Newspapers
Easter is just a short hop away, and it’s not too late to gather goodies to fill your kids’ baskets.
Part of this springtime ritual includes dyeing eggs. The easiest way to transform the white orbs into a rainbow of colors is to pop on over to your local grocery store and purchase a package of quick-fizz tablets, then spend the afternoon dunking the eggs into cups filled with the colors.
But there’s another nifty way of dyeing eggs. Bypass the promotional aisle where you’ll find the pre-packaged tabs and head to the produce section to gather red cabbage, yellow onions and beets. These common foods – along with coffee, nuts and berries – can be used to make natural dyes. Creating these colors can take a bit more work, but it’s also a lot more fun.
Kary Houle-Wilson, education coordinator for Guadalupe River Park and Gardens in San Jose, has been dyeing Easter eggs the “natural” way for the past three years. She holds a class for kids each spring at the park, teaching them the wonders of using foods as dyes. Her class has grown in popularity, drawing anywhere from 50 to 75 participants each time.
To get ready for the big day, Wilson spends hours at her home boiling foods and spices, and then she brings the dyes to the park for the participants to use.
“The kids really love seeing the different colors, but the parents really get into it, too,” Wilson said. “There are times when the kids have gone out to play, and the parents are still in the classroom dyeing the eggs.”
If you feel up to doing this at home, here are some suggestions for getting started.
First, choose the different types of food you want to use, and then boil them in separate pots until the color has been extracted. Next, strain the cooked vegetables and spices out of the mixture, then put the colored liquid back into the pot.
There are two methods used for dyeing the eggs: cold-dipping and boiling.
With the cold method, the eggs and the ingredients for the dye are boiled separately. Then the cooled, hard-boiled eggs are placed into a bowl of cooled dye. If you prefer a light-colored egg, leave the eggs in the dye in for a short period of time, but for richer colors, leave them in for a longer period, even overnight.
If you want your eggs to have a more vibrant color, try boiling them with the dye. The heat allows the dye to saturate the shells, resulting in an intense, more uniform color. Set raw eggs in a pot of strained dye, and let them boil for about 30 minutes. This allows the eggs to be both cooked and dyed at the same time.
The fun thing about using food for your dyes is that you can’t be quite sure what color they’ll create. For example, if you want light-brown eggs, use boiled yellow onion skins or crushed walnuts. Yellow eggs can be achieved by using a generous amount of the spice tumeric. Boiling eggs in coffee will create a dark brown. Surprisingly, if you want blue eggs, use boiled red cabbage.
There are other ways of producing some stunning colors, generally by soaking the eggs in one dye then transferring them into another color. This method can be used to make greens, salmons, pinks or yellows.
Once the eggs have cooled, they’re ready to enjoy for your Easter celebration. Happy decorating!
