Sunday, April 8, 2007

No, they are not rotten!


This year I had read several articles on using natural dyes for Easter eggs. Anything natural tends to intrigue me, so I made notes and got "ingredients" to make "Beautifully subtle colored eggs".

So, you may wonder why the picture shows eggs that look like they got left in the hen house for a couple of months.... Well, there is a good reason for that! Those articles were BOSH!

I got yellow Delicious apples for "a springlike, green yellow" color, red onions for a "beautiful purple", Cranberry juice for a "lovely shade of rose", and strong coffee for a "rich dark brown". I even bought 18 white eggs at the store instead of the usual brown ones I get from my local farmer.

As you can see none of them worked like the articles. The yellow apple skins turned the water the color of weak tea, this did nothing to the eggs. The cranberry juice and the red onions did indeed turn the water a bit pinkish, but as for what they did to the eggs, well it's almost best not mentioned. Those are the grayish ones. They also needed to have some slimy sort of film washed off afterwards. The coffee turned the eggs to a kind of brown color, pretty much like the eggs I normally get from that farmer!

We are feeling a bit hesitant about opening up the cracked ones, you know how the white ends up pink or purple or whatever color the eggs were in? I'm pretty sure these babies are not only going to look like last weeks garbage on the outside, but they are not going to be very appetising on the inside either.


Guess who is going to buy Paas egg dye again next year??? You got it!

Oh well, I hope anyone reading this had a lovely COLORful Easter!!

Post Script~~~~~~~~ at the grocery store today I stocked up on egg dye for next year! Good job me!

8 comments:

Leigh said...

I'm sure the kids had fun anyway.

Kim said...

That's pretty funny! LOL! Did you use red onions or the papery skins? I have actually done this in the past, although I had no idea about apples, coffee, etc. The skins of yellow onions work, and I would have thought red onion skins would work too. How about beets for a pinky red? Maybe a little different from the red onion skins. I can't remember what else we used--it's been a long time. But hey, this reminds me a little too much of my Martha Stewart pipe cleaner dying debacle, so I say grab a box of Paas next year! Meanwhile, box those babies up and mail them to whoever/whatever you got those recipes from in the first place!

swooze said...

Hey you had to give it a shot!! It is fun to experiment. At least you learned.

Quilter Kathy said...

Oh no! So much creativity and energy into something that was disappointing. At least you made a great memory for the family!

Judy said...

It's the idea and the fun that counts! But, I'm not one who would want grey or brown Easter eggs either - don't blame you for being disappointed. I often wonder what is in the commercial dyes to make them so bright and cheerful - or, maybe we don't want to know! LOL!!

SuBee said...

Hey, it was fun to try, and you got a good laugh out of it! Plus you shared the good laugh with us -- TY!

Patti said...

How fun to try this - even though it didn't work out the way you hoped it would!

Susan Freebery said...

Oh, Mare, you really made me laugh! I tried to die muslin once with natural dyes very similar to the ones you mentioned, except I added purple cabbage, and all I got out of it was muddy looking muslin and a family who protested for days regarding the dreadful smell that permeated the entire house!