Lakeside expats planning an Easter egg coloring session won’t find packages of ubiquitous PAAS dye tablets in shops here or stores in Guadalajara. With Mexican stores stocked to the rafters with swim suits, beach toys and camping gear for outdoor fun during Easter vacations, those tied to north of the border customs are searching for alternative methods to jazz up traditional Easter eggs.
Local arts and crafts expert Eileen Bergen is way ahead of the crowd. She has developed and shared a wealth of egg decorating techniques in her blog The Artful Crafter. Last year she created a method for coloring eggs using a variety of foods and edible garden materials. The result was beautiful. The eggs took on a lovely marble-like finish in a soft rainbow of colors from yellow and orange through blue and violet and warm brown.
Bergen’s system is simple enough to be a kid-friendly project, and it is all non-toxic. “Best of all,” she said, “this is a science experiment that helps children realize not everything has to come in a kit or mix. This is back to nature at its best.”
The materials list is deceptively simple. Bergen suggests that you wash raw white eggs in soap and water to remove any oily residue and then gather the following items: white vinegar, cheesecloth cut into six-inch squares, string, kitchen tongs, paper towels and small pans to dye the eggs (they cook as they are colored). A separate pan is needed for each color.
In her blogpost Bergen reports that the best coloring agents from her kitchen and garden were red onion skins, saffron threads, pansy or violet flowers, brown onion skins, red cabbage leaves.
She arranges one of those materials on a piece of cheesecloth and then put the raw egg in the center of the square and gathered the corners of the cloth together before she tied the top of the bundle with the string.
“I think it’s best to cut off the excess cloth at the top of the bundle before placing it in the pan and covering it with water,” she said. “One of the benefits to this technique is that because the eggs are padded they don’t crack while they are cooking.”
She adds about a teaspoon of white vinegar to each small pan to help set the colors. Once the pans are on the stove, she brings the water to a full boil and then turns down the heat so that the eggs continue to simmer for about 15 minutes. After removing the pans from the heat, she uses the tongs to move the egg bundles from the hot liquid to drain on paper towels. Then each bundle is cooled and rinsed under running water.
As the eggs are unwrapped the unique designs and soft colors are revealed. “Each one is different and each is lovelier than the others,” Bergen said. “I rub the finished cool, dry eggs with vegetable oil to give them a nice sheen. The colors are soft and the pattern reminds me of polished marble.”
See the Artful Crafter’s full instructions for making the naturally-dyed marble eggs at www.theartfulcrafter.com/easter-three.html, Bergen comments that because these eggs are created with food sources and edible flowers they are completely non-toxic and safe, even for those with allergies to commercial dyes. They should, however, be stored in the refrigerator.