Making “Conscious” Egg Dye

When I picked my daughter up at nursery school today, she had a handmade basket with two dyed eggs perched precariously in it. She was extremely proud of them and insisted on carrying them on our walk home. I gently told her to be careful.

Disaster struck one block later. The first one (purple) tumbled out and cracked, Humpty Dumpty-style. I tried to snatch it up before she noticed. No such luck. But she did let me place the cracked specimen back in the basket. A few blocks later, the second one (orange) literally rolled out in tragic slow motion and…into a gutter. We live in New York City. I didn’t dare retrieve that one. Enormous tears were shed. She wailed the rest of the way home. Needless to say I promised we could make more. As I made our lunch, I sent out a tweet asking for good DIY dying tips. Friends responded with a few craft-themed website suggestions.

I have written two books now with recipes in them but don’t tell anyone: I’m not big on following recipes. These craft sites are so intense. I don’t have time for all of those steps. Even if I followed them, my results are always messier. It’s just who I am. Instead, I made dye out of what I was already prepping for dinner. I put up some beets to boil, and harvested some of the ensuing red water. And I used the scraps of what was going into a split pea soup — onion skins, carrot and parsnip peels — to create a yellow-ish liquid. I splashed a little vinegar in both (someone on Facebook said it sets the dye, and I vaguely remembered this from childhood Easter egg kits). Thrilled to have saved the day, I called my daughter to the stove to see what I had been up to. Rookie mistake; the tears flowed again when we took the eggs out of the fridge and realized that our multi-hued farmers’ market dozen only contained one white egg! Oops.

No matter. That lonely egg is now deep pink. The dyes will keep overnight in glass jelly jars. And we already have a plan to seek out white eggs after school tomorrow.

News:

*Week #2 of The Conscious Kitchen Challege is now up at TheDailyGreen.com. It’s all about where to shop for conscious food.

*I’m speaking next week Thursday April 1st at 92Y Tribeca. If you’re in New York City, come out and say hello.

*Also next week Thursday: New Mexicans can tune in to hear the amazing Deborah Madison interview *me* (pinch me!) on her radio show. I will post station and time details as soon as I have them.

*I have added a few more Conscious Kitchen items to my OpenSky shop. Check them out.