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Contents
Posts
Making Vibrant Easter Eggs, with Photos
Thursday, April 9th, 2009This year we didn’t have a lot of time for egg dying. So we used a PAAS egg dye kit. By the end we wanted to add a little extra pizzazz to the colors, so we put in about 5 drops of McCormack’s Neon food dyes to the different colors of PAAS dye. The colors came out very vibrant (as you can see in the photos below)…
If you have more time, I’d recommend trying to dye eggs naturally. It’s a lot of fun and it’s fulfilling to know you did it with natural food products. You can find out how to dye eggs naturally in the links below…
Enjoy!
Mama Lisa
UPDATE: Edee Lyons sent me these ideas for creative tools to use with eggs for special effects when dying: "Crayons, tape, wax and acrylic paint. That should make the chick inside smile with delight as it goes spinning and spinning in your hands…" Thanks Edee! If anyone else would like to share any ideas for interesting effects with eggs, feel free to comment below. -Mama Lisa
Bunnies, OMG, They’re Soooo Cute!
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
Look at those fluffy bunny tails! Don’t they remind you of Easter? Or at least all the white, fluffy goodness of Springtime! Click on the photo for some Green Easter ideas and read all about Easter and dying eggs naturally in these other posts…
Enjoy the Season! May you see many bunnies hopping across your path!
Mama Lisa
Easter Customs in Germany
Thursday, March 13th, 2008Christine von Kannen-Balgar sent me this fascinating letter, answering some questions I had about Easter customs in Germany:
Dear Lisa,
To answer to your e-mail:
1) I’ve never heard of a German custom of eating green eggs on Maundy (Green Thursday) [scroll down to the discussion of Green Dyes to see what Christine is referring to - Lisa].
2) In Germany the Catholics used to eat green vegetables on Green Thursday (and maybe also the Lutherans/Protestants).
Well, nowadays almost everything has changed! I shall try to explain to you about Maundy, Lent and Easter (and the Easter Bunny) in Germany.
What you are talking of was a matter of religion. In North Rhine Westphalia, where I come from, and in most parts of south Germany most people were Catholics, so is/was my family. When I was a child or young girl (and I am 63 now) we used to “lent”, which means that the children did not eat sweets. We collected all sweets we got in a big glass, and on Easter Sunday, when Lent was over, we put it into our “Easter baskets” with the other sweets and EGGS. The “Easter Bunny” brings little children eggs and all Easter sweets! I think nobody really knows where this custom came from. Though it is known that the Easter Bunny first became popular in Germany in the 16th century.
People in Germany also make Easter trees. They hollow out eggs, dye them and hang them on shrubs or trees.
Lent started on Ash Wednesday, the day after Carnival and ended on Easter Sunday (do you know that in Germany we have an “Easter Monday”, which is a holiday – no work?!).
On Green Thursday we used to eat spinach or green cabbage (it is a green kind/sort of cabbage) or brussels sprouts. Or any other green vegetable you can think of (winter vegetables – as you’ve written in your e-mail). But not eggs!
I don’t know what had been the custom in the 18th or 19th century, but since the beginning of the 20th century (my grandparents were born between 1874 – 1887) we have known this custom of green vegetables on Maundy. I never heart about eating green eggs on Maundy.
We eat eggs on Easter.
On Good Friday or Good Saturday we boil the eggs (they must be hard boiled, so that you can keep them for a few days). Then we colour them red, blue, yellow, green etc. or speckled with special “Easter Eggs Colouring”.
On Good Friday we used to eat fish or anything else, but never meat – a “law” of the Catholic Church.
So the Catholics were not allowed at all to eat meat on Fridays (according to Church Law, which is not a law given by Jesus but by the Institution of the Catholic Church!). But you might know that. As I said, custom and things change. Nowadays, almost nobody cares for that. We all eat meat on a Friday, and maybe this Church Law was given up!? I don’t know. But we still eat coloured eggs on Easter and give eggs, together with sweets, in a little basket, to children, sometimes also to adults.
Best wishes from Old Germany
ChristineThanks for sharing information about your customs in Germany with us Christine! Many of our customs in the US are the same. I believe a lot of them came here through the Pennsylvania Dutch (German immigrants to America).
Recently, I’ve even started to see Easter trees here too. I believe that’s a new custom.
If anyone knows more about the custom of eating green Easter eggs in Germany on Green Thursday, or if you’d like to share your customs with us, feel free to comment below or email me.
Happy Easter!
Mama Lisa
How to Marble Easter Eggs
Sunday, March 9th, 2008Here are directions to create a marble effect on eggs. It’s an easy way to give your eggs more pizzazz this Easter.
1) Hard boil white eggs.
2) Prepare egg dyes. You can use store bought dyes (*see note below) or follow my instructions to prepare natural dyes.
3) You can dye some eggs different solid colors to have a base color for your marbling. You can also leave some hard boiled eggs white as a base color.
4) Put about 1/2 to 3/4 inch of one color of a dye mixture in the bottom of a shallow bowl.
5) Add 1 to 3 teaspoons of vegetable or canola oil to the dye. (You can start with 1 teaspoon of oil and, if needed, add more. The amount you’ll need will depend on the size of your bowl and how you’ll want it to look. More oil will let the base dye show through more.)
6) Quickly, but gently, place an egg in the bowl. Take a spoon or fork to “drizzle” some dye over the top to make a marble effect. Be aware if you’re using food coloring for your dye, it dyes the egg very quickly. So with store bought dye you’ll have to work faster. Using more oil in the dye will keep the dye from seeping into the egg too quickly.7) Take the egg out of the dye and let dry on napkins or paper towels.
8) You can repeat the process in another colored dye if desired.
9) Once dry, the eggs may be a little oily. You can take a napkin or paper towel to spread the oil evenly around the egg to give it an even sheen. If you want a brighter shine, you can put a little more oil on the egg and rub it around to produce a very shiny egg!*You can buy tablets for dying eggs and follow the instructions on the box or you can use food coloring that you buy in the store. Here are my food coloring directions for making egg dye: Use 1/2 cup water plus 1 teaspoon white vinegar plus 20 drops of food dye to make one color of dye mixture.
The photo below shows eggs dyed with a green food coloring mixture. All of the other photos show eggs marbleized with natural dyes.
FYI, I wouldn’t hide these eggs around the house for an egg hunt since they may stain your furniture.
How to Dye Eggs Naturally
Monday, March 3rd, 2008During most of the centuries that people have colored eggs for Easter, the dyes used were made from natural products like onion peels, bark, beets and blueberries. Of course, it’s different today.
These days, most of us use store bought tablets that make dying Easter eggs quick and easy. My children and I have enjoyed doing it that way for years. And you can’t complain about the price – it usually costs less than two dollars to buy a packet of dyes.
On the other hand, I love to try to do things the way they were done in the old days. (As long as the task doesn’t involve ironing or starching shirts!) When my colleague from France mentioned that she used to dye eggs naturally, I knew that one day I had to try it.
I’ve been eggs-perimenting for the past week. Below you’ll find my results – both the ones that worked and those that didn’t. Hopefully, if you try it, you’ll learn from my mistakes and won’t have to waste your time on the failures.
Below, I’ve given general instructions, followed by specific instructions to make dyes of various colors.
By the way – One important goal I set for myself was to make sure that the final results, the dyed eggs, were completely edible. So if you use the ingredients listed below, feel free to make a nice egg salad for your family when you’re done! (As you’d imagine, it turned out that the eggs that cooked separate from the dye ingredients tasted better. The ones that cooked with the ingredients had a bit of a rubbery taste.)
General Instructions for Preparing the Dyes
Cover the ingredients with water, while making enough dye to cover the eggs you’ll want to color. Add white vinegar to help set the dye and bring out the color. You’ll want about 3-4 cups water to 1 T. white vinegar. Bring the water to a boil and then simmer it for about 30 minutes. If the color is still not released you can add more vinegar and let it simmer for another half hour – being careful not to let the water boil off. You can also try to gently smash the ingredients with the back of a wooden spoon.
When using green leafy vegetables, substitute 1 teaspoon of baking soda for the vinegar. That works better to help release the green color from the leaves.
After cooking, strain the colored liquid through a strainer to separate the ingredients from the dye. If there are still little bits of ingredients in the dye you may need to strain it again through a coffee filter inside the strainer to separate them from the liquid. (Place coffee filter in the strainer as shown below.)
Coloring the Eggs
There are two ways to actually color the eggs:
-Cook the eggs in the pot with the ingredients that make the dye. Beware that with this method the eggs will have a less consistent color. It’s great, if you like the variegated look.
Also, be aware that some dyes are more likely to scrape off when the eggs are cooked this way. This is particularly the case with berries and juices.
For a more consistent color on the eggs, hard boil the eggs in advance and prepare the dye separately, as described for each color below.
After the dye is ready, pour it into a bowl, add the hard-boiled eggs and let them soak. They can soak for anywhere from five minutes to several hours. The longer you leave them, the darker the color. If you’re letting the eggs soak for a long time, turn them in the dye occasionally for a more consistent color on all sides of the eggs.
Drying the Eggs
When you are ready, remove the eggs from the dye and let them dry. Be careful where you dry them, because some eggs may take on the pattern of whatever surface you rest them on. This is particularly a problem with paper towels. (As I found out the hard way!)
The Colors
I’ve listed the colors loosely following the order of a rainbow: red, pink, brown, orange, yellow, gold, green, blue, and purple.
Dying Eggs Naturally RED
Red Onion Peels Work WellRed Onion Peels
Some people take the extra loose scraps of onion peels from the onion bin at the store to get extra peels.Peels of 5 Red Onions
6 Cups of Water
1 T. VinegarBoil 30 Minutes
This worked very well! I got wonderful brick red eggs. If you boil the eggs with the skins they’ll look mottled. If you want them to look more uniform, cook the eggs first, separately and then let them soak in the dye. Short soaks in this dye will produce a salmon colored egg. (The egg in the photo below soaked for 5 minutes.)
Cultural Note About Red Eggs in Greece, Romania and Bulgaria
In Greece, the tradition is to dye the eggs red on Red Thursday – which commemorates the day the Last Supper was eaten. It’s also called Unholy Thursday because that’s when Jesus was betrayed by Judas. The red of the eggs represents the Blood of Christ. Red eggs are also important in Bulgaria and Romania.
Dying Eggs Naturally PINK
Beets Work Well, Strawberries are so-so,
Cranberry Apple Juice Didn’t Work WellBeets
4 c. Beets chopped up with red part of stems
4 c. Water
1 T. VinegarBoil 5 minutes
Simmer for 25 minutesThis worked well though my eggs are not uniform in color
Comments: Next time try using 2 T. vinegar – it may help with uniformity of color.
The egg below I cooked with the beets. You can see that the color is inconsistent throughout the egg. Though I find it to be pretty!…
The egg below I cooked separately and then soaked in the “beet dye” – it’s more uniform in color…
Strawberries
1 c. Strawberry Bits (parts we weren’t eating, not including the green stem)
2 c. Water
1 T. VinegarBoil 10 minutes
Simmer for 20 minutesCooked egg with strawberries. The dye from strawberries done this way is too soft as you can see in the photo below. It scrapes off too easily. The egg below was cooked with the strawberries…
Mediocre Results from the Following:
Red Apple Peels – mediocre color – not really recommended.
Cranberry Apple Juice – peels off easily – not recommended.
We did happen to get one pretty effect using rubber bands and cranberry apple juice. We wrapped the rubber bands around the eggs to create a design and then we dunked one of the eggs in the cranberry apple juice dye. Here you can see a photo of eggs with rubber bands wrapped around them…
Here you can see the egg after it came out of the dye. We let it dry and then took off the rubber bands…
Dying Eggs Naturally BROWN
Coffee and Black Tea Work Well(If you plan on eating the eggs eventually, be aware that the ones made with coffee had a funny taste.)
Coffee
2 1/2 – 3 cups Coffee
1 T. VinegarBoil for 5 minutes
Simmer for 20 minutesComments: Next time I’ll try coffee without cooking it for so long at it tends to burn after a while and smell badly! I doubt it needs to cook for too long, if at all.
You can see in the photo below, both eggs cooked with the coffee. That’s why they have variegated colors. The egg on the left continued to soak in the coffee for a few hours, that’s why the darkest part of that egg is so dark.
(Since this posting, I’ve read that you can dye eggs other colors and after they dry dip them into coffee “dye” to give them an aged look.)
Black Tea
5 Tea Bags
2 1/2 cups Water
1 T. VinegarBoil for 5 minutes
Simmer for 25 minutesGreat brown color! It looks like wood.
Dying Eggs Naturally ORANGE
Yellow Onion Peels Work WellYellow Onion Peels
Many people take the loose scraps of onions peels from the onion bin at the store to get extra peels.Peels of 4 Yellow Onions
6-8 Cups of Water
2 T. VinegarBoil 10 Minutes
Simmer 20 minutesThis worked very well! If you like an organic, mottled effect, try wrapping a couple of eggs in onion skins (held on by rubber bands) and cook them with the skins that way. The photos came out a little blurry, but I thought they were worth posting so you could see how to wrap the onion and also see what the effect looks like on the finished egg
I first put a celery leaf against the egg before I wrapped it in the onion peel. That’s why you can see the leaf pattern on the egg below…
If you simply cook the eggs in advance and let them soak in this dye for a while, they’ll end up looking like the “brown” eggs you buy in the store.
Dying Eggs Naturally YELLOW
Turmeric and Green Tea Work WellTurmeric
5 cups Water
1/4 c. Turmeric
2 T. VinegarBoil for 5 minutes
Simmer for 30 minutesAfter simmering, filter the turmeric dye mixture through a coffee filter inside a strainer to get rid of the excess turmeric.
Comments: This dye worked well, but next time I would make a smaller amount with less turmeric (as the turmeric was a little messy). I’ll try 3 cups water to about 2-3 T. Turmeric and 1 T. Vinegar.
These eggs below were cooked with the turmeric mixture…
Green Tea7 Tea Bags
3 cups Water
1 T. VinegarBoil for 5 minutes
Simmer for 25 minutesWe obtained this yellow-green color with a fairly short soak…
This egg below soaked overnight in the green tea…
Dying Eggs Naturally OCHRE and GOLD
Strawberry Stems worked wellStrawberry Stems
Stems of 1 pound of Strawberries
2 cups Water
2 T. VinegarBoil for 15 minutes
Simmer for 15 minutesInteresting color!
Chamomile Tea
5 Tea Bags
2 1/2 cups Water
1 T. VinegarBoil for 5 minutes
Simmer for 25 minutes
Chamomile Tea produces an ochre color with long soaks, like the egg below on the left, and a nice pale color with short soaks, like the egg on the right…Mediocre Results:
Yellow Apple Peels
Color scrapes off. Not great results.Dying Eggs Naturally GREEN
Spinach Works Well (if you know the secret!)I tried numerous tests with spinach that didn’t work. I used fresh spinach, frozen spinach and pre-cleaned spinach – all cooked with vinegar and water and simmered for half an hour. Nothing worked! Finally I read somewhere to use baking soda (which is also used in some batik dying processes). I also read not to use fresh spinach. Lastly, I read that if you’re not getting colored water after simmering for 1/2 hour, then let it simmer longer and mush up the vegetables. So I tried my last package of frozen spinach with all of these suggestions and it worked! Hurray! Green eggs at last!
The results are subtle in the photos below, the green is light, but you can see it better in person…
Spinach
10 oz. pkg. Frozen Spinach
1 t. Baking Soda
2 cups of WaterBoil for 5 minutes
Simmer for 60 minutesMush up spinach to release the color. Make sure water doesn’t simmer away!
Total Failures for Green
All of these were failures for green – perhaps the trick is in the baking soda – next time I’d try it instead of vinegar to draw out the green from the vegetables.Kale
String Beans
Artichokes
Avocado Peels
Dried Bay Leaves
(I doubt the last two would work even with baking soda.)
Cultural Note About Green Eggs in GermanyIn the past, eggs were given up for Lent in Europe. However, one book (”Victorian Easter” by Dave Cheadle, Premium Press America, 2006) reports that, during the Victorian Era, in Germany people were allowed to eat Green Eggs on Maundy Thursday, which is the Thursday right before Easter. It is also called Green Thursday. Maundy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper, eaten by Jesus and his disciples. It was a Passover Seder. During a Seder, bitter (green) herbs are eaten. It’s believed that the green eggs may have represented the green bitter herbs of the Seder eaten at the Last Supper. (Later the custom changed to eating green vegetables instead of green eggs on Maundy Thursday.)
Dying Eggs Naturally BLUE
Red Cabbage Works WellRed Cabbage
10 cups Water
1/2 Head of Red Cabbage
3 T. VinegarBoil for 30 minutes
Comments: This dye worked well! A long soak overnight makes it a more intense blue.
The eggs below with more variation in color were cooked with the cabbage. The darkest egg soaked for a long time…
Dying Eggs Naturally PURPLE
Blueberries and Grape Juice Work WellFrozen Blueberries
2 cups Frozen Blueberries
3 cups of Water
1 T. VinegarBring to boil
Simmer 30 minutesI got a nice dark purple on the egg below by cooking it with the blueberries and then letting it soak for about 5 hours (for some reason the dye on the end of the egg turned brownish – I don’t mind this organic type of look.)…
For light to medium purple, I soaked it for a short amount of time…
Grape Juice
2 cups Grape Juice
1 T. VinegarBoil for 15 minutes
Simmer 5 minutesI cooked one egg with the juice. It got very dark, but a lot of the color scraped off. The soak I did later with a precooked egg worked much better. That’s the method I’d recommend for juice in general (cook the eggs first separately, then soak them in the juice). Beware: Juice scrapes off very easily. The color on the eggs that soaked in grape juice is grayish, like in the photo below…
Shiny Eggs
It’s easy to make your eggs look shiny. Gently wipe a small amount of vegetable oil all over the egg with a paper towel for a beautiful, shiny effect.
Conclusion
Here are some pictures of many of the eggs side by side.That’s it! After a week of driving my husband crazy, sending him repeatedly to the supermarket to pick up this ingredient or that, and filling our refrigerator with container after container of dye… I’m done. My eggs-tremely eggs-citing, eggs-cellent eggs-periments are complete.
I hope you have as much fun trying them as I did.
P.S. I wouldn’t hide these eggs indoors for an Easter egg hunt, since the dye might stain your furniture.
P.S.S. I almost forgot – I also did some nice marble effects on eggs, which Ive written all about in a separate post.
Eggs-periments in Dying Eggs Naturally!
Friday, February 29th, 2008I’ve been experimenting with dying eggs naturally! The photos below show some of my results.
Over the next few days, I’ll be posting easy directions to dye eggs with natural products, like fruits and vegetables, that you can follow at home.
Cheers!
Mama Lisa
UPDATE: The directions for dying eggs naturally are online.
The Symbolism of the Egg
Saturday, February 23rd, 2008As Easter approaches, it’s natural to think a little about eggs!
In days gone by the egg, due to its shape, was a symbol of the earth. Thanks to its obvious association with the beginning of life, it has also been the basis of many ancient creation stories. It has been a symbol of fertility, rebirth and the cycle of life. These latter symbols are so close to what Springtime is all about that it’s no wonder it’s been an important part of Spring celebrations since pre-Christian times.
As Europe became Christian, eggs became a symbol of Easter and the resurrection of Jesus. In the past, Christians gave up eggs for Lent (the 40 days before Easter when it’s customary to give up different types of food). But even though people didn’t eat them, the hens kept laying them! So people would hard boil and decorate them. This would help preserve them longer and serve as part of the holiday festivities.
The egg is also part of the Jewish Passover holiday that takes place in the Spring. The egg is placed on the Seder plate and is a symbol of sacrifice and loss. Yet to some it also symbolizes the full cycle of life, and therefore hope and rebirth. (The egg is a more recent addition to the Seder plate compared to the other symbolic items that are found there and its symbolic meaning seems to be more open to interpretation.)
In China, red eggs are given out at the one month birthday of a new baby. It’s customary to hold a Red Egg and Ginger Party at this time. Once again, the source seems to be the egg’s role as a symbol of fertility and the beginning of life.
So here we come full circle (or oval) with the egg as a wonderful symbol of birth, renewal and rebirth. This is something wonderful to consider as Springtime approaches in the northern hemisphere, where the Earth will soon come back to life!
Feel free to let us know about any special symbolism of the egg in your culture in the comments below.
The Ancient Ukrainian Tradition of Pysanka
Friday, February 22nd, 2008In ancient Ukrainian culture, eggs were decorated in a style called Pysanka (plural ‘Pysanky’), using wax and dye.
Back in Pagan times, Pysanky where thought to protect people and were placed in homes for that purpose.
They were also placed in caskets to capture evil spirits. The artwork on the Pysanky has no definitive visible beginning or end. It was thought that once an evil spirit got caught in the design, it could not exit and was trapped in a type of maze. This prevented it from being able to inflict harm upon the spirit of the departed.
The Pysanka tradition is still alive among modern Ukrainians and people of Ukrainian descent, as part of Easter celebrations. People give Pysanka eggs to each other for the holiday.
Many thanks to Marijka Hayda for sharing the history of this tradition with us. Thanks also to Luba Petrusha for letting me take images from his photo.
PS This demo about making Pysanka lets you see how it’s done.
Elaborately Decorated Eggs for Easter In Eastern Europe
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008Guest Blogger, Ed Gawlinski, has been involved in many cultural organizations throughout his life. Here, he discusses Easter traditions in several Eastern European cultures.
A common custom is to color hard boiled eggs for Easter. We usually colored them on Good Friday, while eating hot cross buns…
Hot cross buns,
Hot cross buns,
one ha’ penny,
two ha’ penny,
hot cross buns.If you have no daughters,
give them to your sons,
one ha’ penny,
two ha’ penny,
Hot Cross BunsIn Eastern Europe (Poland, Ukraine, Czech, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Russia, Bulgaria, etc.) coloring Easter eggs is a highly developed folk art. In the Polish language there are several different words for colored Easter eggs, each indicating a different technique. The style I know best is called Pisanki. In this you use a stylus to draw on the egg with melted wax. After you draw, you put the egg in the dye. After it dries, you draw some more and then put the egg in a different colored dye. The wax keeps that part of the egg from being dyed. It’s a process similar to batik. Intricate and beautiful patterns are made by skilled artists. I am not a skilled artist, so my eggs were never works of art. But I did have fun trying.
Another style is called Kraszanki. We had an exchange student from Switzerland whose family colored eggs this way. They put onion peels in the water they used to boil the eggs. The eggs came out brown. You could use oak bark or walnut shells to make the eggs black. You could use Marigold flowers to make the eggs yellow.
The opposite approach to pisanki is drapanki. These eggs are first died and then, using a sharp tool, you scratch off the dye to make your designs.
Although elaborately decorated eggs are part of the tradition of all Eastern European countries, each one has its own tradition as far as the patterns used to decorate these eggs.
Lent Season and Pancakes
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008Guest Blogger, Ed Gawlinski, has been involved in many cultural organizations throughout his life.
The season of Lent has started. Lent is a season during which Christians prepare for Easter. The English custom is to start Lent by having pancakes on Shrove Tuesday (the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday). A children’s rhyme goes with this…
Pancakes and fritters,
Say the bells of Saint Peter’s.Or
Hark I hear the pancake bell
And fritters make a gallant smell.One of the Lenten disciplines is to avoid foods made with fat, which is the reason for the English custom of using up your fat by making pancakes the day before Lent starts. The Polish custom is to make Pączki, a type of donut.
At these links below you can find some recipes for Pączki:
Recipe for Paczki
Another Recipe for Paczki
One more Recipe for Pączki
An Interesting Way They Used to Dye Eggs in France for Easter
Thursday, April 20th, 2006(UPDATE: Here are directions I’ve written for dying eggs naturally.)
I’ve been emailing back and forth with Monique, of Mama Lisa’s World en français, about Easter traditions in the US and France.
I asked Monique whether or not they dye Easter eggs in France. In the US many people dye (hard boiled) eggs. Most people buy an egg decorating kit at the supermarket that has 6 color tablets that you put into individual bowls and add vinegar and then water. It gives six vibrant colors to dye your eggs.
I don’t know if people still dye eggs. When I was a child, they would hard boil them with an onion in the water to dye them yellow, with string beans in the water to dye them green, and with beet juice in the water to dye them red.
I don’t think people still dye eggs, I never hear kids speaking of it. But I can’t say for sure as they may still do it in other areas in France. There are instructions on the internet! They say to first hard boil the eggs and then let them stand for the day in water as follows:
For Red Eggs: in water in which red onions have been boiled
For Light or Dark Pink Eggs: use beets, blueberries or grapes
For Yellow Eggs: use saffron, curry, turmeric or nutmeg powder
For Ocre Eggs: use yellow onion skin
For Brown Eggs: use coffee
For Green Eggs: use spinach, but I remember my mother dying them in water with string beans.
For Blue Eggs: use red cabbageIt’s always interesting to me to learn not only about how people do things differently in different cultures, but also how they did things differently in the past.
Thanks for sharing this with us Monique!
-Lisa
P.S. According to an online article by Martha Stewart about dyeing eggs naturally – you don’t have to soak the eggs for the day. Instead, you can boil the coloring agent (listed above) in 4 cups of water mixed with 2 tablespoons of white vinegar. You can adjust the proportion of water to vinegar as needed. (A head of red cabbage will need 8 cups of water and 4 T. of vinegar.) Bring to a boil and then cook on low for 1/2 hour. Let cool. You can dunk the eggs for short amounts of time, or for more intense colors, you can soak the eggs in dye for the whole day as mentioned above.
(UPDATE: Here are directions I’ve written for dying eggs naturally.)
“A Bunny”, a Fingerplay Rhyme
Saturday, April 15th, 2006A Bunny is a fingerplay you can do at Easter time or throughout the year. Here are the words…
A Bunny
Once there was a bunny.
(Make a fist with your left hand and extend two fingers for ears)And a green, green cabbage head…
(Make a fist with your right hand)“I think I’ll have some breakfast,” the little bunny said.
(Move bunny toward cabbage head)So he nibbled and he nibbled.
(Wiggle fingers on left hand)Then he turned around to say,
“I think this is the time I should be hopping on my way!”
(Make hopping movements with left hand)Enjoy saying this rhyme to your little bunnies!
Lisa
Hot Cross Buns and Good Friday
Friday, April 14th, 2006Good Friday is the Friday before Easter. Hot cross buns are traditionally eaten on Good Friday in parts of England. (The other traditional Good Friday food being fish.)
The song Hot Cross Buns is also sung. Here are the full lyrics to Hot Cross Buns…
Hot Cross Buns
Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot Cross Buns!If your daughters do not like them,
Give them to your sons.
But if you haven’t any of these pretty little elves,
You cannot do better than to eat them yourselves!Enjoy eating your hot cross buns, today is Good Friday!
Lisa
“Easter Rabbits”, a Counting Rhyme
Thursday, April 13th, 2006Here’s a fingerplay about rabbits for Easter…
Easter Rabbits
Five little Easter rabbits
(Hold up all 5 fingers )
Sitting by the door,
One hopped away,
And then there were four.
(Bend down one finger)Refrain
Hop, hop, hop, hop,
(Clap each time you say hop)
See how they run!
Hop, hop, hop, hop,
(Clap each time you say hop)
They think it is great fun!Four little Easter rabbits
(Hold up four fingers)
Under a tree,
One hopped away,
And then there were three.
(Bend down one finger)Refrain
Three little Easter rabbits
(Hold up three fingers )
Looking at you,
One hopped away,
And then there were two.
(Bend down one finger )Refrain
Two little Easter rabbits
(Hold up two fingers)
Resting in the sun,
One hopped away,
And there was one.
(Bend down one finger)Refrain
One little Easter rabbit
(Hold up only one finger)
Left all alone,
He hopped away,
And then there were none.
(Hide hand behind your back)Refrain
Hop, hop, hop, hop!
(Clap each time you say hop)
All gone away!
Hop, hop, hop, hop!
(Clap each time you say hop)
They’ll come back some day.This rhyme can be used throughout the year, if you take out the word “Easter”.
But now it’s Easter time, so let’s leave it in!
Happy Easter!
Lisa
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