Easter at home: Dyed Eggs Three Ways

For many hundreds of years people have celebrated Easter through the eating, painting, staining and dyeing of eggs. Here are three different ways we like to dye fresh eggs for our Easter table...

Crayon Resist Dyeing
This is probably the easiest and least messy way to decorate eggs with smaller children as they will be handling eggs that have already be hard boiled and so wont crack so easily on them.

You will need:
- Fresh Eggs
- Wax crayons
- Food dye

Method: Hard boil some eggs. Let them cool to room temperature. Next draw patterns on the eggs using wax-based crayons or even a beeswax candle. Coloured crayons work really well! Next dye the eggs in a bath of water + food colouring dye. You can make a food colouring dye by mixing 3/4 cup of warm water + 1 tablespoon white vinegar + 10 drops of food colouring. Submerge the eggs for at least 5 minutes, set the eggs aside to dry!

Gradient Colour Dyeing
You will need:
- Fresh eggs
- Food dye

Method: Hard boil your eggs. Prepare a series of dye baths by combining 3/4 cup warm water + 1 tablespoon vinegar + 10 drops of food colouring. You might like to make 3-4 separate dye baths but increase/decrease the amount of food colouring or have different colours like red and blue.

Next hold one end of your egg in the dye bath for 3-5 minutes. Drip off the excess and hold the opposite end in a different dye bath (so you have two different coloured ends) and finally plunge in further into the third stronger/weaker/different coloured dye bath. Experiment with colour combinations and lengths of time in the dye, you are trying to achieve some gradient lines of colour on the eggs.

Onion Skin Easter Eggs
It’s best to plan ahead for this one by storing onion skins in a bag in the fridge or freezer over the week as they are used in cooking.

You will need:
- Onion skins (red and brown are fine) or purple cabbage leaves work well too!
- Fresh Eggs
- Small leaves and flowers from the garden
- Flesh-coloured pantyhose stocking
- Rubber bands

Method:
Place onion skins or purple cabbage leaves in a large saucepan. Next attach rubber bands to the raw eggs - alternatively you can carefully arrange flat leaves and flowers on the outside of the eggs and use the pantyhose stocking to keep them in place (you will need to cut the stock up) - secure with a rubber band. Cover the eggs and skins with water - about 2cm above the eggs. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Carefully remove the eggs and let them cool before removing rubber bands and/or stockings and leaves. You should see faint patterns on the eggs from the bands and leaves.
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photos from top: onion skin + cabbage leaf dyeing / crayon-resist dyeing / natural dye / gradient colour dyeing