Natural dyes: vinegar try-out #1

lovey-dove

I imagine this post could have been handier if posted on Friday, but it wasn't until Saturday that I was inspired to see how dark I could dye some eggs using only what I had in the fridge and freezer, with a little help from my new friend vinegar. I boiled the papery skin of purple onions (rich brownish maroon result), then some coffee grounds (brown, not terribly dark), tumeric (a nice ochre result), blueberries (faded indigo), tangerine peel (nada), chard/parsley/spinach (nada, but I read spinach produces a nice green, I think I just didn't use enough of it), and cranberries (a light pink).

I boiled each of these items in a little pot with just enough water to get some color and pour into a peanut-butter jar but not enough water to dilute the color too much. I boiled each for 10-15 minutes, strained the liquid into a jar and added 2-3 tablespoons of white vinegar. It was not an exact process by any means. After boiling the eggs, I dropped 1-2 eggs in each jar of dye mixture and let them sit the rest of Saturday and overnight. On Sunday when I took them out, they each had a filmy substance that was brightly colored, but I rinsed them off, and with exception to the onion skin mixture, they all faded. The colors were still really nice though, earthy-pastelly tones and I found a new use for vinegar! Unfortunately, my camera battery was dead on Sunday morning and I wasn't able to take these pictures until Monday morning, so they faded a bit again because they were drier.

My favorite is the onion skin which not only produced the strongest color but also some really neat designs on the egg. I also liked the turmeric, which I have had stained on my skin after a toe-stubbing incident. Turmeric mixed with egg as a topical treatment is a home remedy which is supposed to reduce swelling. By the way, I used brown eggs - I would imagine that using these natural dyes on white eggs would be that much more brilliant! I hope everyone had a happy Easter!