Decorating Easter Eggs with natural dyes

What you will need:

• Eggs – as many as you want to decorate

Dye Ingredients:

• 1 red cabbage 
• 3 beetroot 
• 1 litre of water per saucepan 
• 1 tablespoon of salt per saucepan 
• 1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar per saucepan

(Other dyes can be made using onion skins, turmeric, parsley, berries)

• Lemon juice (optional)

Use same method for each ingredient in separate pans

1. Roughly chop your red cabbage and add to a pan with water vinegar and salt
2. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 30 minutes, then remove from the heat
3. Allow the vegetables to steep in the water whilst it cools
4. Strain, reserving the liquid for dyeing
5. Cut tights into sections big enough to cover an egg
6. Pre-boil your eggs
7. Collect small leaves and flowers for your egg decorations
8. Wet one side of leaves / flowers and place on egg
9. Wrap egg carefully in tights and tie with string
10. Place eggs in dye and soak for a few hours
11. Dry eggs on a wire cooling rack for 30 minutes to 1 hour
12. Unwrap your eggs, remove leaves / flowers and polish with a little olive oil or butter
13. An additional decoration technique is to use lemon juice on dyed egg to remove areas of dye. Create a pattern using a paint brush or cotton bud