Apr

All Natural Easter

Posted by Tiffany at 1:04 pm in Children, Green Holidays.

natural easter egg dyes It is almost Easter time. Have you given any thought to how you can make Easter as “natural” as possible?

Last week I posted about some natural and fair trade Easter baskets and a chocolate making kit that you can buy from Global Exchange. While those are some great options for Easter, there are also some ways you can make having a natural Easter a DIY project.

Make Your Own Baskets This is what I usually do. Just get a basket (we reuse every year) and take some paper laying around your house that you would usually recycle and run it through a paper shredder. You can also use scissors if you don’t have a shredder. Fill the baskets will little trinkets and toys, a stuffed animal, some felted wool eggs, crayons and water colors, organic juice boxes, and healthier candy like Dagoba Chocodrops. Whole Foods has a lot of healthy options for Easter Baskets.

Dye Eggs Using Natural Colors – Most people color their eggs with egg kits that contain dyes made from petrochemicals, but in times past eggs were colored with plant materials found in nature.

To dye eggs with natural coloring put raw, white-shelled eggs in a pan and cover with water and a teaspoon of white vinegar. Add your coloring agent and bring to a boil and then let the eggs simmer for 15 minutes. Rinse and allow to cool.

You can also hard boil them first and then fill glass jars with water and the coloring agent, putting the jars in the microwave for 2-3 minutes and then stirring. Then allow the eggs to sit in the jars overnight.

For pink and red colored eggs use cranberry juice, beets, or raspberries.

For yellow eggs use saffron or tumeric

For purple eggs use red wine.

For blue eggs use red cabbage leaves or blueberries.

For brown eggs use grape juice, rosehip tea, or coffee.

For orange eggs use yellow onion skins.

Happy Easter!!

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6 Comments »

6 Responses to “All Natural Easter”

Michael Bond says:

September 13, 2007 at 1:46 am

After Easter, you can use the wool for weaving a small tapestry. I will be posting instructions for building a small loom using a cardboard box.

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Eco Friendly and Green Easter Ideas, Gifts, and Candy | Natural Family Living Blog says:

March 7, 2008 at 10:00 am

[...] and dye your own eggs using natural coloring techniques. I wrote a post about this last year with instructions. But in general here is what you use for colors: For pink and red colored eggs use cranberry [...]

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One Crafty Place » Easter Eggs says:

March 27, 2009 at 2:49 pm

[...] dyed eggs from Just Braise are just gorgeous. Click here to read how he did it and check out Nature Mom’s Blog for a few more natural [...]

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All Natural Easter :Green Made Easy says:

April 5, 2009 at 9:54 pm

[...] All Natural Easter | Green and Natural Parenting. Bookmark [...]

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Erica says:

April 9, 2009 at 9:26 pm

Thanks for the green Easter ideas! I love the idea of using natural materials and foods to dye eggs, but I have a question: can you still eat the eggs afterward, or do they absorb too much flavor from the coffee, onions, cranberries, etc.? We usually eat all of our eggs later in egg salad, since I don’t want to waste the food, so I’m wondering whether that would still be possible with this dyeing procedure. If the eggs would taste weird, perhaps blowing the shells to get all of the raw egg out first, then having scrambled eggs while you dye your eggshells, would be an option. =)

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How to Have a Green Easter Holiday » Green and Natural Parenting says:

March 12, 2010 at 11:06 am

[...] Dye eggs using natural easter egg dyes -mix a tablespoon of white vinegar per cup of boiling water and add onion skins (yellow), red [...]

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