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Friday, February 29, 2008

Dyeing Easter Eggs with Onion Skins


The main ingredients...eggs, dried onion skins, stockings and pieces of plant



Wrap raw egg in stocking with bit of plant arranged snugly against the egg and fasten. You can use rubber bands or tie them like I did.



Next put all the onion skins and wrapped eggs (and plain if you like them that way) in a pot with a tablespoon of white vinegar. Then hard boil the eggs. I brought mine to a boil slowly then simmered for ten minutes and let them cool in the pan. Then I rinsed and dried them and coated them with just a touch of vegetable oil.

My mom happened to call when I was working on these and told me that her grandmother, Julia Lachmayer, used to bring mom and her brothers and sister eggs that had been dyed this way for Easter. It was a new bit of family knowledge for me, as I learned to make these years ago from a magazine article. I like these better than the gaudy, glittery sort that are more usual and start saving onion skins along about Christmas to make them. It is unfortunate that the selection of plant material for decoration is just a tad sparse at this time of year in the Great Northeast though


17 comments:

Amanda said...

Gorgeous... I love this natural look! You should totally enter this in the Art You Can Eat foodblogging event!

threecollie said...

Thanks Mrs. W...I took a look at that site and the strawberry chocolate thing looked SO tempting!

Anonymous said...

Easter Eggs for grownups! Beautiful!

R.Powers said...

Those are amazing!
Very neat 3C!

Linda said...

Brings back old memories. I used to do that when I was a kid. We used beet juice too.

Jan said...

I used to do these with my grandmother and had forgotten all the details. Thanks for the directions. I agree, they are much more attractive than commercial dyes.

Windyridge said...

These are wonderful! They look so natural. Very pretty. I would love to try this but there is no way I will have enough onion skins in time. Maybe next year.

Charley "Apple" Grabowski said...

I love this! I'm in the same boat as WindyRidge - won't happen this year. But I'll had a reason to keep a windowsill herb garden going next year!

threecollie said...

Nita, thanks, they were fun to make

FC, thank you too

Linda, I will have to try beet juice. That is a new one to me.

Jan, wish I had more leaves...wrong season

WR, I buy ten pound bags, so just what is loose would make a goodly batch, although I saved these. Thanks for putting this on stumbled upon!

Apple, I always think about having herbs indoors and then never get around to it...it is such a good idea. We do have a nice crop of lettuce though, although it was slow taking off for some reason.

Cathy said...

Oh! Oh! Wonderful! I've got to get my sis over her to see these.

Anonymous said...

Now that's something I have never seen before! Hmm, will have to add this to my favorites for this years easter eggs! Thanks!

Rachel Elizabeth said...

That is one of the coolest things I have seen today. I never knew you could do that.

threecollie said...

Cathy, they are so much fun,...I am kind of sorry to be done with them.

mon@rch, they are really fun to make and pretty when done

Jedirach, Thanks for visiting and commenting! I found them years ago in an old magazine, but this is the first time I have made them in a long time.

Stacy said...

Those are so pretty! I'd heard of doing this, but had never seen it or known how. I'm going to have to try this with my daughter.

Deanna said...

Oh, how beautiful!

Anonymous said...

T/C,
Ya know the great stuff is always homemade. These are simply amazing. Thanks for sharing how to do them. Your pics are fantastic! Excellent post.

threecollie said...

STacy, thanks, do try it, it is so much fun and they are so pretty when you are done.

Cubby, thanks,


Steve, thank you so much, coming from as talented a photographer as you are that means a great deal.