The great eggperiment

So I got the bright idea last week that I wanted to do things different this year when it comes to Easter eggs. In the past, we have always used store bought kits with the dye tablets to color our eggs.

I have never liked peeling an egg that was colored all the way through, wondering if it was good for me, and then tasting the color. {ick} So, as part of my efforts to transition to a more eco-friendly household, I decided to give natural dyes (food) a try.  When I mentioned my idea to my two older children, they were all for it.

We started with a trip to the local market. I told Apollo & Artemis to each chose a few vegetables or fruit they thought would work well, e.g. bright or dark colored.

They picked beets, radishes, purple cabbage, broccoli, and lemons. We already had a bag of frozen berries at home, so we skipped buying berries.

A few days later, we were ready to do our “eggperiment”. We looked at the foods and realized that four out of six foods were purple and/or red. So we decided to pull out the cabbage and replace it with mandarin oranges that we had on hand.

First up was to hard boil the eggs. Then we got started on getting each dye lot ready. I read a few different tutorials on coloring with food and most recommended 2 cups of water to 1 – 2 cups of the food, so that is what we did. After bringing the mixture to a boil, I let it simmer for about five minutes. Once cooled, I drained the liquid out and we added the eggs (already decorated).

We let the eggs sit for about fifteen minutes and pulled them out. There was not much color difference, so we started the timer again. Next time we checked, there was no noticeable progress. I made the executive decision to move the containers into the refrigerator to sit overnight.

The next morning (this morning actually) we pulled everything out and removed the eggs. Some were very different, while others looked the same as when we first put them in. After rinsing off & carefully drying the eggs, we examined our results.

Hmmm.

I don’t want to sound like a downer, but I was disappointed at some of the results. The majority of the eggs didn’t catch any color. One dye lot (oranges) actually removed part of the original color of the shell! I guess that is why oranges are used in some cleaning products?

After opening the blinds and drapes and looking closer, I was actually very happy with the eggs that did color. They look very natural. Jokes on me, right? A few look like they could be dinosaur eggs or rocks to me. My children were not upset in any way. They were happy with the results and love the way the colors turned out.

Some of the ways I incorporated my children (7 year old son & 4 year old daughter) in this experiment;

• picked out the foods (both)
• counted the eggs as they went in the water (4yo)
• measured berries (4yo)
• put foods in pot (both)
• measured the water & vinegar (7yo)
• set the timer (4yo)
• dividing eggs evenly (7yo)
• decorated the eggs using rubber bands, crayon, & stickers (both)
• writing & cutting out paper tags (7yo)

After looking at more tutorials today, I realized that we will probably do things different next time. The first is that the ratio of vinegar to water I used probably was too much on the vinegar side. Also, I think we will actually hard boil the eggs on the stove in the dye lots. Lastly, I may use only white eggs. I’m not sure about that one though, because I really like brown eggs.

After all is said and done, I do not regret doing the eggperiment at all. The whole thing cost less than $10 and we still have half of the vinegar left. I had fun with my children and we all learned new things.

As my son said to me after the radish dye turned out so light; “like Mrs. Frizzle always says - take chances, make mistakes, get messy!” (courtesy of The Magic School Bus)

 

These are the moments I really enjoy being a parent. I am extremely grateful that I figured out when they are still young what is most important in life; not that our eggs look like something out of a Martha Stewart book because I stayed up all night decorating them, but that we did it together, had fun, and made memories. 

What about you?

Have you colored Easter eggs in a similar way? 

Any tricks or tips for next time? 

Do you have any Easter traditions that include your children and their creativity?