Easter Traditions

If you like to dye Easter eggs, why not try natural dyes this year? A traditional method involves gathering interesting leaves and flowers, fastening them to the eggs, then dying with a broth of onion skins. The eggs, such as those pictured above, range in color from golden to reddish to brown. Nikki Wright's blog explains this process in detail. Digs magazine has another good article on natural egg dyeing - fundamentally the process involves boiling bright colored fruits, vegetables, and flowers to create a range of dyes, but these results (pictured below) are unusually vivid, so this article should provide a good basis for your own experiments. Looking for more Easter treats? Try filling a basket with actual grass, rafia, or shreds of colorful recycled paper (whose idea was plastic grass, anyway?) and topping with organic jelly beans and chocolate bunnies.