Golden Eggs - Dyeing Eggs With Turmeric

Here's an easy and natural egg dyeing technique for you to try just in time for Easter ....give turmeric a whirl.  It produces a lovely golden color and it smells nice too.  You can find turmeric in the spice aisle at your local supermarket. 

I started with some white, light brown, and green eggs from my girls.   While they were hard-boiling, I heated up about 5 cups of water in my crockpot and added roughly 4 tablespoons of turmeric.  I let the turmeric and water simmer for about 15 minutes, then turned the heat off.  When it had cooled slightly, I added my now-boiled and slightly cooled eggs to the mixture.  

I looped rubberbands around a few of them as a resist, but you could also let the kids add designs with crayons too.

I let the eggs sit  in the dye bath for an hour and when they emerged, they were a gorgeous gold. 

Here are the dyed eggs and their pre-dyed counterparts.  The green egg had a sort of olive green tone to it.  Lovely!

I've read that you can add vinegar to the dye bath to help the color stick more.  I added a splash of vinegar to the eggs while they were boiling so I did not include more vinegar in the dye bath.   Of course, I had to taste test them too to see if the flavor of the turmeric came through, but it had not.  Nothing but eggy goodness.

As far as getting a good hard-boiled egg, here's an interesting article on the subject.  I find that older eggs do in fact peel easier, so I typically use store-bought eggs for boiling.  (our fresh eggs get eaten up pretty quickly around here)

What kinds of natural egg dyes will you be trying this year?