“Green” Decorated Eggs

Decorating eggs is fun. Below are some simple steps to become an egg artist for Easter or anytime. Follow the national trend to “go green” when decorating eggs with your children, grandchildren or just for yourself!

After hard cooking eggs, dye them and return them to the refrigerator within 2 hours and eat within a week. Discard any egg that has been used as decoration or left out after an egg hunt for more than two hours.

If eggs are to be eaten, use a food-safe coloring. As with all foods, persons dyeing the eggs should wash their hands before handling the eggs. “Go Green” and use foods found in your kitchen to dye the eggs. The fresher the egg, the more difficult it is to peel after hard cooking, so use eggs closer to their use by date.

The American Egg Board recommends the following recipe to make naturally “green” dyed eggs: Toss your choice of a handful – or two or three – of one of the materials below into a saucepan. (Use your own judgment about quantity. This is an art – not a science!) To make pinkish red eggs use fresh beets, cranberries, radishes or frozen raspberries. Yellow onion skins will dye eggs orange. To obtain delicate yellow, use orange or lemon peels, carrot tops, celery seed or ground cumin; ground turmeric produces yellow. Spinach leaves produce a pale green, while Yellow Delicious apple peels make a green-gold. Canned blueberries or red cabbage leaves will dye the egg blue.

For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Office. Used with permission by Cheryl Maxwell, Hot Springs County, Arkansas