Dyeing Easter Eggs Naturally

I first shared this post over at It's Overflowing on March 19th-- Aimee had a fantastic idea of an EGG HUNT and allowed bloggers to share ideas on her site. Many thanks to her for including me, it was a special treat! Please pop over to see all of the other egg related posts. I am sure you'll find more than one you will want to try at your house.

Dyeing Easter Eggs is a fun family tradition. I can remember standing on a chair trying to reach the counter top in my grandmother's kitchen where she had the eggs lined up and ready to dye & decorate. The tradition continues in my house, we generally use food coloring or the Paas coloring kits for our eggs. This time around I wanted to try something different. I was intrigued by something I read on the site Serious Eats (article here)-- the idea of dyeing eggs with items you'd find in your kitchen: turmeric, beets and red cabbage were their choices.

I let their idea grow as I thought about other foods that would have similar characteristics and the ability to impart color on eggs. Tea and wine came to mind-- if they can stain teeth and lips, why not eggs too? You might wonder why I didn't start with grape juice, rather than wine. Well I had wine that was more than a few days old and I didn't have any grape juice on hand, it's as simple as that.

This process is so simple that it barely needs to be mentioned; with very little effort you can explore a new color palette for your dyed eggs. The tea produces a deep bronze color and the red wine imparts a lovely shade of lavender.

Tea: Make a few cups of very strong tea (at least 4-5 tea bags in 2-3 cups of water). Add a splash of vinegar too. Let the eggs sit overnight.

Red wine: Fill a cup 1/2 way with wine. Gently lower one or two eggs in at a time. Let soak for an hour or even overnight until you like the shade you've created.