I just love Spring and all that it brings! Blooming flowers and plants have made their way into our home and yard, herbs are starting to sprout in outdoor pots, and the sunshine spills in our windows. There is nothing better then having the windows open, kids playing in the yard and my hands in the dirt!

For our Easter celebration and decor I love to use these same natural elements. Plenty of flowers, seasonal local ingredients for our lunch…and this year I decided to dye our eggs naturally as well! This has been something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and I’m absolutely thrilled with the results! I’m also quite happy to say it’s not as intimidating as it might seem. See below for detailed instructions…but it really is as simple as boiling vegetables with a little white vinegar, straining the liquid and using it as a dye.

I chose to use red cabbage, pomegranate seeds, spinach and blueberries for my dyes. The process is really very simple…just boil your vegetable with a little bit of white vinegar, strain, and then use as your natural dye. I love how the colors don’t turn out as you might expect! The truest blue came from the cabbage! Blueberries dyed the eggs grey and both the pomegranate and spinach resulted in a very faint yellow/taupe color.

Naturally dyed eggs also require a lot longer time in the dye. At a minimum I leave the eggs in for 2 hours. The darker colors resulted from an overnight soaking in the fridge! The best part of these natural dyes is that you can achieve so many different colors and hues by using different vegetables and varying timing. Such fun to experiment!

The natural, subtle coloring of these just blow me away. I think they look absolutely beautiful sitting in a simple bowl, and they will be the perfect decoration for our Easter table!

Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs

Ingredients:

Hard boiled eggs

SPINACH DYE – 2 cups spinach, 4 cups water, 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar

CABBAGE DYE – 2-3 cups shredded red cabbage, 6 cups water, 2 tablespoon distilled white vinegar

POMEGRANATE DYE – 1 cup pomegranate seeds, 4 cups water, 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar

BLUEBERRY DYE – 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries, 4 cups water, 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar

How to:

Place to the vegetable, water and vinegar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for a minimum of 30 minutes. The longer you simmer the liquid, the deeper the color will become.

Strain the liquid through a fine mesh sleeve into containers. I used mason jars! Let the dye cool, and then place eggs into the each dye. Keep the eggs in the dye solution for about 2 hours. You can play with the time, I kept some of mine in 2 hours and some overnight in the fridge! The longer you keep them in the dye solution, the deeper the color of the egg.