Coloring Easter Eggs Naturally

Last year we got a little creative with coloring our Easter eggs.  We decided instead of buying the kit at the store that we would use things God made.  

Here are some ways to make natural coloring for your eggs.

Yellow
1 teaspoon tumeric

Blue/Purple
2 cups crushed blueberries or blackberries

 Pink/Red
2 cups roughly chopped beets
 
Add water and coloring of your choice to a pot on the stove and bring to a boil, turn to med-low heat and simmer for 10 minutes.  If there are bits of the food you are using left, use a strainer to get them out and then stir in 1 teaspoon of vinegar.  Pour in a bowl and wait for it to come to  room temperature.  Then roll your eggs in colors as desired.  Leave them in longer for darker colors.

You can use onion skins in two different ways.  You can either boil the eggs in water with the onion skins or I like to wrap the skins around the egg and secure with thread or a rubber band and boil them on the stove.  These were my favorite because they came out a pretty brown and yellow swirl.

Putting rubber bands in different designs around the eggs and flowers and herbs before you dye the eggs can make some pretty designs.  We used  purple flowers from the yard and parsley to make designs on the colored eggs.  It was a lot of fun trying different things to make pretty colors.  One thing we tried that didn't work was broccoli. This year we are going to try beets and red cabbage for some pink colors.  I would like to encourage you to try something new this year.  See what you and your kids can come up with!!  It is a lot of fun.  Let us know what you try and how it works out!