Make your Easter a bit greener and more sustainable by colouring the eggs naturally.  Brown Easter eggs are my favourite for two reasons:

1. the colour is natural and so simple to make,
2. brown is strong enough for our chickens’ brown eggs.

Here in Australia,  I rarely see white eggs.  Our chickens’ eggs range from cream to medium brown.  Singapore, our black chicken lays the lightest coloured eggs – she is very popular around Easter time .

How to Colour Easter Eggs Naturally

Here are step by step instructions with photos for colouring your Easter eggs naturally.

You need:

• hard boiled eggs
• old stockings, washed preferably , cut into several 15 cm (6 inches) pieces
• lots of brown onion skin (outer layer only)
• large pot
• herb leaves like parsley

Instructions:

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil together with the onion skin.  Boil for about 10 min.

2. Place a chosen leaf face down on the egg.

3. Tie a knot on one end of the stocking, carefully put the egg and tie the other end.

4. Stocking should be very tight to press the leaf so no colour gets under it.

5. Place the eggs into the pot with onion skin in it. The water doesn’t need to boil, but should be hot.

6. Leave the egg in the onion water for at least 5 min or longer depending on the colour of the egg and desired colour depth.  Check after a few minutes.

7. Once happy with the colour, take the egg out, cut the knot with the scissors, remove stocking and the leaf and let it dry.

8. Rub some oil to give the egg nice shine.

These eggs are safe for eating.  Happy colouring!

Do you have a natural egg colouring method you would like to share?  Please do so using the comment form below!

Easter is just around the corner and it’s time to start some planning (I should say it’s the last minute to do so).  If you are celebrating Easter, think about how to green your Easter celebrations this year.

Here are some of things we do at our place:

• Number one: we limit the quantity of chocolate Easter eggs (at least at home)!  Kids really want the Easter egg hunt, however by Easter they have eaten too many at school and kinder.  So we hide about 3-4 small ones per child.  And we rarely buy any chocolate eggs as they keep coming from school, friends and neighbours. When buying chocolate Easter eggs, it’s best to find the smallest eggs, ideally hollow ones that have least chocolate in them.  Organic and fair-trade Easter eggs are now available.  Skip huge Easter bunnies and eggs with lots of packaging.

• At school and kinder our kids make Easter egg baskets form paper or recycled plastic tubs filled with shredded paper.  Refuse bought plastic basket with fake plastic grass.

• We boil and decorate real eggs.  Now that our chickens are laying we have our own fresh eggs.  Usually I boil them with the onion skin for lovely and natural colour:

• We bake the hot cross buns, make Easter cookies and generally all food for the celebration is homemade.

• Easter decoration is arriving on a daily basis form kinder in form of different paintings and paper craft – so I don’t have to worry about that task

• Decorated blown eggs:  we have a set made 5 years ago and still using it.  Simply, make two holes with a wooden skewer and blow the egg out using a straw.  Then rinse, dry and decorate.  You can hang them on some branches (see below), arrange them in a bowl or use them as a simple table decoration.

Here are just some of ideas for greener Easter.

Would you like to share your tips for eco friendly Easter? Please do so in the comments below.