I had another crack at the eggs...

On the night before Easter I couldn't resist taking one more crack at natural egg dying (so sorry for the dreadful pun, couldn't resist). In case you missed my first post about this, I had previously boiled white eggs with yellow onion skins, and blueberries. The onion skin eggs turned dark orange, and the blueberry ones turned grey (in retrospect, I probably shouldn't have boiled the berries but just used the raw juice).

This time I boiled the eggs first, and then set them to soak (for about an hour) in one of three solutions: the juice of pickled beets, the water that spinach had been boiled in, and the water that only a few onion skins had been boiled in. The results: the beet juice turned the eggs only a very pale pink, which surprised me since not only was that juice extremely vivid in colour, but it was mostly vinegar. The spinach turned the eggs a horrid shade of brownish-green that did not even remotely remind me of spring. What it reminded me of, I prefer not to mention. ;) The only real success was the onion skin eggs, which turned a lovely golden shade of yellow. You can see the spinach and the onion eggs below:

We really did have fun dying these eggs, and next year I will be sure to plan ahead more, do some research, and create some lovely Easter eggs. I really do love to see the interesting and textured colours that are produced by natural dyes--they're so much easier on the eye than the glaring uniform colours produced by commercial food colourings. I'd also like to try using blown eggs next year instead of boiled, so that we could hang them for decorations. 

And also next time, I'm going to make a big Easter brunch with scones and fruit salad instead of the burnt banana muffins I offered my family this past Sunday...

The past few years, I've tried to think of ways to make each holiday and each season a little bit more enjoyable and memorable for our family. It's an ongoing process, and one which I enjoy. Seasonal celebrations and rituals bring a comforting rhythm to our lives, a rhythm which is easy to lose in today's hurried, superficial world.

Comments

[Laura @livingourway.com]

Traditions are wonderful. This year we did resurrection cookies for Easter. I think this is a tradition we will continue no matter where we are. And...just like my mom always burned the rolls at Thanksgiving...my girls just might remember Mama trying to dye eggs naturally every Easter with no success LOL

[Laura Jeanne]

Thanks, Laura--that's a better way to look at it. :D