Wednesday, April 20, 2011

our adventure dying brown eggs

My 9 year old was so sure it wouldn't work to dye brown and blue/green eggs. 11 dozen eggs in the fridge I was NOT going to go to the store and purchase white eggs. We were going to give dying our own eggs a try.
When boiling fresh eggs I've had great luck throwing a handful of salt into the water to help make peeling easier. I always cover the eggs with cold water, add a handful of salt and bring them to a boil and then turn the stove off and let them set for 10-15minutes. I get perfect hard-boiled eggs every time.

We made our own dye this year instead of buying a kit.

The kids were very skeptical but none the less- we had a great time.





One of my egg customers brought "peeps" for Anna. Her brothers wanted to know why she always gets special attention from people. She's a ham! What can I say? Somewhere along the line, teenagers lose that adorable quality. Maybe its their knowitallsyndrome?

She was happy to share with her brothers though.


Even the blue/green eggs dyed nicely- they worked great for achieving pastel colors
The the darker the brown egg- the more earthy the color turned out.

I'd wish everyone a happy spring, but I think spring has gone on hiatus.


~Kathy

15 comments:

  1. Very pretty! I actually like the more earthy colors! Anna is adorable too by the way :0)

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  2. They are BEAUTIFUL! This made me smile!

    Tamara

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  3. They look beautiful! I was just thinking the other day how dyeing my fresh eggs would turn out. Now I know! Thanks!

    I have always had a problem when hard boiling my fresh eggs. They never peel well and I end up with chunks riped right out of the whites. Does the added salt help? I have recently found out that the reason for this is because the fresher the egg the smaller the air pockets. Therefore once boiled they expand and completley fill the shell. That is why store bought eggs (which are not fresh) always peel eaisier, because they have bigger air pockets! I was told that if I leave my fresh eggs in the frige for at least a week they will peel eaiser when hard boiling. ....I think I will give your handful of salt idea a try and see what happens!

    You answered many of my silly questions with this blog post! Many thanks!!

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  4. Jessica- if you eggs are REALLY REALLY fresh - add more salt. I also, sometimes let the eggs sit on the cupboard overnight...not sure if it helps or not. Have fun dying your eggs!

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  5. What a great post & happy kids :)

    I was wonderin the same thing about the farm fresh eggs... we are usin our own eggs too. What did you use to make your own dye?

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  6. Jennifer,
    We used water -about 6oz, a tablespoon of vinegar and food coloring. We kind of just played around with how much until we got it to dye. The different shades of brown produce different shades of color-which I thought was really fun...so on the light brown eggs we got pink and on the dark brown eggs and rusty red- all from the same dye.

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  7. Enjoyed your post , I wasn't sure about dying brown eggs either. We'll be giving it a try now. The eggs look great !

    ~ Farm Friend Blessings ~

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  8. love the color of the dyed brown eggs! really, why buy white??? my kids do the white crayon trick too! fancy eggs friend!

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  9. What beautiful eggs:) We're also getting ready to dye eggs, and ours are mostly brown. I've also wondered how they'd turn out, but yours are beautiful. Thanks for the info!

    Blessings,

    Sherry

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  10. The eggs are beautiful and it looks like the kids had fun! Happy Easter:@)

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  11. Love those eggs, the colors are gorgeous. The kids did a GREAT job! Thanks for posting at Farm Friend Friday!

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  12. Lovely eggs and thanks for the fresh egg recipe. I'm going to try making soft boiled eggs; Dave loves them and I've never gotten them right. Perhaps your recipe will help me succeed. Blessed Resurrection to you and yours, Kathy!

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  13. I love how those turned out! The colors look like faded old colored paper! Thanks for sharing this post!
    Deb

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