Dye Your Easter Eggs Naturally This Year

It’s almost Easter and we’re excited to share a fun and different idea that you can use to dye your Easter eggs naturally this year. Artificial food dyes are everywhere. Although these colors certainly appeal to children, research has suggested there may be some health risks to children from them. Since they offer no health benefits, it has been suggested to minimize your children’s exposure to them until their safety can be better determined. Fortunately, you have control when you dye food naturally yourself, and when your children help, they can learn too.

Despite being a little more time consuming, making a natural dye to color your eggs is really quite simple to do. There are many different ingredients that can be used for a wide variety of colors, and varying the soaking time can yield different intensity also. We think the extra effort provides special opportunities for shared family fun and creative experimentation.

When it comes to homemade dyes, the quantity, variety of colors, and intensity can be easily varied. Two to four cups of chopped beets, skins from red or yellow onions, red cabbage, fresh or frozen blueberries or blackberries are each good ingredients to provide different colors. A few tablespoons of turmeric or dried hibiscus flowers are additional options. Moreover, strong black coffee or a half dozen tea bags work well and are also good alternatives.

Although there are different methods, we think following this one is simple and effective:

1. Hard boil the eggs, then remove them from the water and refrigerate until cool. 
2. Bring about eight cups of water to a boil and add one of your chosen dying ingredients to the water. 
3. Reduce the heat and simmer for about half an hour.
4. Remove the pan from the heat and allow it to cool. Typically, the longer the ingredient steeps, the deeper the color will be. 
5. Strain the water into a container and discard the solids. Add a splash of vinegar and your dye bath is ready.
6. Gently place eggs in a jar and pour the colored water over them to submerge before placing them back in the refrigerator overnight.
7. In the morning, gently remove the eggs with tongs or a slotted spoon and let them dry on a rack.

We think you’ll love the creative process, especially when you surrender control to unexpected outcomes, share the experience, create new traditions and most importantly, feel good about minimizing your children’s exposure to artificial colors.   

You can make as few or many different color batches as you like. Remember that water quality is important to dyeing and is impacted by minerals such as magnesium or calcium in hard water. The depth of shade can be decreased with hard water and it can also cause problems such as spotting. Soft water is ideal to provide the deepest, richest, smoothest colors with natural dyes.

Hard water can easily be turned into soft water by using a high-quality filtration and softener system that removes hard water minerals. Brita PRO’s whole home filtration system improves the quality of water throughout your home.

Learn how a Brita PRO Home Water Filtration and Softener System can make your life better at www.britapro.com.