Easter Eggs

I just finished boiling eggs so that the kids can dye them tomorrow.  I purchased the PAAS kit just like last year and the year before.  This year though, I didn't really want to.  Now that I read all food ingredients and am avoiding artificial colors, I at least, hesitated before throwing the box in my cart.  I rationalized my purchase with the thought that we peel the eggs before we eat them.

Let's see, Yellow #5, maltodextrin, Red #3, cellulose gum, Yellow #6, Blue #1, Blue #2, Red #40, magnesium stearate, silicon dioxide, etc.  Good stuff right?  Try buying Easter candy without all those colors too!

In my search for a recipe for the perfect hard-boiled egg (yes, I need a recipe..I only make them once a year), I came across an article on how to make natural egg dyes.  Too late for this year, and I may not even try it next year (after all, we do peel the eggs), but I thought it was pretty cool.  If we used the dyeing as well as shopping for the foods that produce the colors as a learning experience, it might be fun.

According to the site, you simply bring the food stuff with water to a boil and then let simmer for anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour depending on the food and desired color. This process does take some time. For deep colors, the eggs should remain in the color overnight.  Not something that my 2 and 7 year old would wait around for.  And the foods to use?  The article gives a reference to foods and the colors they produce.  Some of them include coffee, blueberries, red grape juice, red wine, spinach leaves, carrots.  See where this could be fun with older kids?  I think they'd enjoy picking out the food and then seeing what colors they can produce.  Even sounds like a good science experiment.

To all of you that are going to be dyeing eggs this weekend...have fun!  My kids usually come away with really stained fingers.  Perfect match for those new Easter outfits for church! At least, I've learned to move the whole process outside on the deck.

Easter Blessings from my family to yours!

Follow-up to Post:

Here's a few pictures of our Easter egg dyeing adventures.  Abigail's fingers aren't too bad this year, and we tried something new using rubber bands to make stripes on our eggs.  The effect was pretty neat.