MagPad Dinner Table

MagPad Dinner Table

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Easter Eggs

About 15 years ago Virginia Teater taught me how to color Easter eggs using all natural materials. We have been doing our Easter eggs this way every year since she taught me this method. I have taught the children in my kids' elementary classes, teenagers in my seminary class, neighbors, ladies in my church, and now the blogging world how to do this. Every egg is beautiful and unique.

Material needed:

Raw eggs
An old pair of nylons
String
Onion Skins
Flowers or leaves with space between the petals*
We have Marguerite flowers growing in our yard, which work great.

Put a flower in the toe of a nylon sock - facing toward you.

Put a raw egg on top of the flower in the stocking.

Bring the nylon over the egg

Twist the stocking and tie a piece of string in a knot at the top of the egg.  This step holds the flower against the egg.  This is a two person job.
One person holds the nylon with the egg and the other person ties the string.

Repeat the above procedure several times up the stocking.
Put a layer of onion skins on the bottom of a pot.  (I go to my local grocery store and gather up
all the stray onion skins in the onion section of the produce department)

Lay the eggs that are in the nylon on top of the onion skins
(remember these are raw eggs at this point.)

Cover with water and boil the eggs for 10 to 12 minutes. (You are basically hard boiling the eggs at this point. The onion skins are coloring the eggs a beautiful golden brown color.)

When the eggs are done boiling, lift them out with tongs.

Cut the stockings.

Reveal your beautiful Easter egg

Happy Easter!

Lisa used leaves to make the designs on these eggs
(The middle one is from a celery leaf that is found in the middle of a celery stock)
Deseretnews.com had an article about using onion skins to color Easter eggs. One of their last steps was to "Finish the eggs off with a light coat of olive oil." I tried doing that this year and it added a nice shiny touch to the eggs.

Spring time is a reminder of the Resurrection
" Behold, my soul delighteth in proving unto my people the truth of the coming of Christ;... and all things which have been given of God from the beginning of the world, unto man, are the typifying of Him. (Christ)"
2 Nephi 11:4
Book of Mormon


*2017 update:  We moved to Utah this winter and I've been on the lookout for petals type flowers and haven't found any.  That is until I went to the garden department at my neighborhood Walmart.  I found this plant which worked great as I made the eggs with my grandchildren this weekend:
I plucked every other petal off to make space in-between which makes a prettier design on the egg.  You could also use a fern type plant with space in-between the leaves.  

2 comments:

Purple Echo said...

Have you tried it with red onion skins?

Shauna

Kathleen said...

Here is a link that tells you how to get other colors naturally. http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-vibrant-naturally-dyed-easter-eggs-holiday-projects-from-the-kitchn-112957 The link says to use vinegar. I never have used vinegar.