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Old-Fashioned Country Living For The Modern Homemaker

All Natural Easter Egg Dye

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A fun and simple way to dye your Easter eggs this year, only using water, red cabbage, and vinegar.

Hello, can you believe Easter is tomorrow?! What a wonderful time of year. The birds are chirping every morning, and the air is warmer and fresher. How sweet the seasons are.

I am making some Easter sugar cookies later today, if they turn out I am hoping to share them on here before this evening. I was inspired by these sugar cookies by Amy over at Constellation Inspiration. She is one of my favorite accounts to follow on instagram because all of her pictures are SO good. I love her style and she is so creative with her food photography. Hopefully my cookies will turn out okay, but we will see. I have only made and decorated sugar cookies a handful of times!

Okay, back to Easter! Funny story again, one Easter when I was young, I lost one of my colored eggs somewhere in my room… it was not a fake plastic egg, it was a hard boiled, dyed egg. I didn’t know until my room slowly started to develop this reallllll stinky smell. Yuck! Ha, I can’t remember now what we did or how we found it but I remember telling myself every Easter after that, “Okay, don’t hide any of these eggs in here!” or “are you sure you got all your eggs?!” Lesson learned.

I also remember dyeing eggs as young child, as I’m sure anyone would, and having so much fun with it. You fill the cup up with water, pour in the vinegar, and drop in the little tablet of coloring. Drop your egg in and voila, its a bright new color! Magic! What’s more magical? Watching mother nature do the same thing, only prettier! I am always so surprised by nature; just look at the blue in the pictures above. Also, look at the color of the purple cabbage! So beautiful and its straight from the ground. I really enjoy doing things the old fashioned way, or the natural way if I can. This was my first time trying a natural egg dye, and I just really loved it!

Of course, there are SO many different ways to dye eggs naturally, using everything from onion skins to tea bags, each creating a different hue. I knew that I wanted to stick with one color, but if you are wanting to have a variety of colors, just look up “natural egg dyeing”, there are so many good articles out there!

This particular method uses red cabbage that has been chopped, boiled, and discarded, leaving a bright purple liquid that the eggs are soaked in. On a side note, I was really worried that the purple liquid would stain anything it came in contact with, but it really didn’t. I was so surprised! Every time I spilled any or got any anywhere, I just wiped it up with a cloth it came right off. So don’t be worried if you do the same! This method is very easy but plan ahead as it does take quite a while for the cabbage to cook as well as for the eggs to soak. I hope you guys are able to give it a try, I think you will love it! If I am not back on here later tonight with those sugar cookies, I hope you have a wonderful Easter!

Ingredients:

  • 1 large, red cabbage

  • 5-6 cups water

  • 4 Tbsp. vinegar

  • 12 dozen eggs (hard-boiled)

  • coconut oil

Directions:

Cut cabbage into quarters, and roughly chop. Place into a pot and add 5-6 cups water. Boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook for 40 min. to 1 hr. Turn off heat and let sit until cooled. Strain the water into a bowl and add 4 Tbsp. vinegar. Divide into jars or containers.

If you want a textured or dotted look on your eggs, scrunch up a plastic bag and pat it in coconut oil, before patting it on each of the eggs. Place into the jars or containers and let sit as long as desired. If you want an ombre look, remove one egg after every hour until all of the eggs have been removed. You may also leave them over night if want them all to be dark, like the dark ones shown in the pictures. You can also use edible gold paint to splatter on the eggs for a speckled look. Keep the jars in the refrigerator while the eggs are soaking.

Once your cabbage has been cooked and you have saved the drained water, you can add it to any size jars you like. I just used what I had on hand! Keep the jars in your refrigerator while the eggs are dyeing. Be warned, the cabbage water will not smell good!! Keeping a lid on your jars will help to keep it from leaving a lingering odor in your fridge. Each of the eggs will turn out unique and different, especially if you use the coconut oil and if you take them out at different times. When you take them out, the coconut oil may be still stuck on in some spots. Let the eggs dry completely first and then just pick at or wipe the coconut oil off. If you try to pick it off before the eggs have dried completely, it will just smear the dye. You can also leave the specs of coconut oil on for a speckled, textured look.

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