Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs & What To Do With Them Post-Hunt

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Amidst the chaos of daily life with an almost-4-year-old and an almost-7-month-old (and a house renovation), Easter has really snuck up on me this year. So there will be no brilliant new recipes or flawless photos before Sunday (sigh...)

But I do want to share a very beautiful technique using plants to decorate your eggs and also point you to some posts about making your own gorgeous, natural dyes instead of those nasty Paas tablets. And, of course, give you some good recipes to put all those hardboiled eggs to use!

finished!

According to my friend, Mara, who made the eggs pictured below, this is a traditional Swiss method. It sounds pretty easy, too. 
Traditional Swiss dyed Easter eggs by Mara Mcmillan
  1. Pick whatever plants/leaves you want to use
  2. Wet them slightly so that they stick to the eggs
  3. Hold them in place while you wrap a 5" piece of cheesecloth or pantyhose around the egg and tie the ends with string.
  4. Boil the eggs for 10 min in water that has been pre-boiled with onion skins for at least an hour (leave the onion skins in with the eggs).
We're hoping to try making these this year (though not in time for me to share with you BEFORE Easter) and I will certainly report back on Facebook if we do.

There are also all sorts of great natural dyes out there - from turmeric to red cabbage to carrots to beets to blueberries to coffee and more.

Here are some links to get you started (they all seem to say more or less the same things):
Of course, once your egg hunt is over, you'll have a lot of hardboiled eggs at hand. So here are a few yummy ways to use them.




A Platter of Deviled Easter Eggs by Eve Fox, Garden of Eating blog, copyright 2011

We're planning to get all the ingredients prepped for deviled eggs on Easter morning so that we can quickly whip up some brunch after we've finished finding them.

Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate it. And happy egg eating to everyone.

You might also like:

Want even more recipes, photos, giveaways, and food-related inspiration? "Like" the Garden of Eating on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter or Pinterest.

3 comments:

Andrea Mynard said...

Love the plant patterns on the eggs, in fact very keen to give this a try. Great eggy eating ideas too.

Catherine said...

This is just gorgeous - the colours you achieved are marvellous, and I love your recipe ideas. I'm interested in the fern patterns - we were shown this in Grade 4 by a teacher who swore that this was the traditional Greek method, so clearly it got around. It's very beautiful, either way.

I wonder if you would consider adding this post to my Easter Egg Inspirations Challenge? It actually closes in about 12 hours, but if you want to enter and are too late, drop me an email, and I will figure out how to add you...

CutiiPromoRO said...

I would love to try frittata with chevre.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs & What To Do With Them Post-Hunt

Amidst the chaos of daily life with an almost-4-year-old and an almost-7-month-old (and a house renovation), Easter has really snuck up on me this year. So there will be no brilliant new recipes or flawless photos before Sunday (sigh...)

But I do want to share a very beautiful technique using plants to decorate your eggs and also point you to some posts about making your own gorgeous, natural dyes instead of those nasty Paas tablets. And, of course, give you some good recipes to put all those hardboiled eggs to use!

finished!

According to my friend, Mara, who made the eggs pictured below, this is a traditional Swiss method. It sounds pretty easy, too. 
Traditional Swiss dyed Easter eggs by Mara Mcmillan
  1. Pick whatever plants/leaves you want to use
  2. Wet them slightly so that they stick to the eggs
  3. Hold them in place while you wrap a 5" piece of cheesecloth or pantyhose around the egg and tie the ends with string.
  4. Boil the eggs for 10 min in water that has been pre-boiled with onion skins for at least an hour (leave the onion skins in with the eggs).
We're hoping to try making these this year (though not in time for me to share with you BEFORE Easter) and I will certainly report back on Facebook if we do.

There are also all sorts of great natural dyes out there - from turmeric to red cabbage to carrots to beets to blueberries to coffee and more.

Here are some links to get you started (they all seem to say more or less the same things):
Of course, once your egg hunt is over, you'll have a lot of hardboiled eggs at hand. So here are a few yummy ways to use them.




A Platter of Deviled Easter Eggs by Eve Fox, Garden of Eating blog, copyright 2011

We're planning to get all the ingredients prepped for deviled eggs on Easter morning so that we can quickly whip up some brunch after we've finished finding them.

Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate it. And happy egg eating to everyone.

You might also like:

Want even more recipes, photos, giveaways, and food-related inspiration? "Like" the Garden of Eating on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter or Pinterest.

3 comments:

Andrea Mynard said...

Love the plant patterns on the eggs, in fact very keen to give this a try. Great eggy eating ideas too.

Catherine said...

This is just gorgeous - the colours you achieved are marvellous, and I love your recipe ideas. I'm interested in the fern patterns - we were shown this in Grade 4 by a teacher who swore that this was the traditional Greek method, so clearly it got around. It's very beautiful, either way.

I wonder if you would consider adding this post to my Easter Egg Inspirations Challenge? It actually closes in about 12 hours, but if you want to enter and are too late, drop me an email, and I will figure out how to add you...

CutiiPromoRO said...

I would love to try frittata with chevre.