Project 365:: Day 111

Day 111 Last year we used natural egg dyes to give our spring spheres some color. They were beautiful shades of yellow, brown, and gray dyed with the last bits of wilting food in our fridge, leftover coffee, fermented juice. It is amazing that something lifeless and dead could produce so much color with just a few steps. So this year, we boiled 3 dozen eggs and looked to our fridge for inspiration. We weren't disappointed! In fact, we were surprised that our eggs came out mottled green and marbled blue. You can pretty much use any leftover scraps, boil in some water, and 2 tablespoons of vinegar....but here's what we did.


Yellow: 2 tablespoons of turmeric, 2 tablespoons of vinegar, 3/4 cup water. Boil for 10 minutes. Let cool, dye eggs.


Blue-Gray: Prune Juice, blueberries, vinegar and water. As per above, boil, dye, repeat.


Mottled Brown: 1 cup of strong coffee, 2 tablespoons vinegar. No need to boil, just dye your eggs.


Mottled Green: Spinach leaves (dead or alive), 1 tablespoon turmeric, 2 tablespoons of blueberry (juice, jam, frozen, fresh, whatev') 1 cup of water, 2 tablespoons vinegar. Boil for 20 minutes. Cool. Toss your eggs in. If you want a cool mottled look, leave the solids in. If you want a solid bright green, strain and then dye.

****This dye looks red but it dyes green. Amazing, deep, foresty, green.

Red-Orange: 2 tablespoons of paprika, 3 tablespoons of chilli powder, 1/2 cup of water, 2 tablespoons vinegar. Boil, cool, dye.

You can use anything. From orange peels to carrots and cocoa powder. Just use no more than a cup of water and add 2 tablespoons of vinegar. Boil, cool, and dye. The longer you leave them in the darker they get.  Just remember if they are dyeing for more than 30 minutes, you should put everything in the fridge.  How easy is that? More pictures to come but you can tease yourself with some from here:

Like those stripes?  Use rubber bands around your eggs to give them a stripey look.  Better yet, get creative with some white crayons.  

****I will confess that we also used some food coloring for some.  It was easier for Kannon to help play with rather than risking a chili powder or coffee burn.  Still pretty nonetheless.