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Eggs dyed with fresh flower colors

These eggs are dyed with extracts made from fresh flowers—a great way to get to know what flowers are edible in your local environments, and to know what colors they produce! Use a mordant and/or a choice of modifiers to create a wide range of possible color combinations. This is a fun weekend project to do with kids! Recipe adapted from Colleen’s on Grow, Forage, Cook, Ferment.
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Equipment

  • 6 9oz jam jars
  • A wire rack for drying eggs

Ingredients
  

  • 6-12 eggs, hard boiled but unpeeled
  • 6 handfuls of fresh edible flowers of your choosing: butterfly pea, hibiscus, chrysanthemums, aavaaram, amaltas/konraipoo, tulasi, marigold, coral jasmine, desi gulab or rose
  • 1 teaspoon powdered alum/padiharam/fitkari per jar
  • 1 tablespoon liquid color modifier (vinegar, lime juice) OR
  • 1 teaspoon powdered modifier (citric acid, cream of tartar, tartaric acid).

Instructions
 

Prepare the colored teas

  • Place 1 handful of the fresh flowers (or equivalent dried) in a jar, and pour about 1- 1½ cups of water over top. Cap and let this steep for some hours and up to overnight, refrigerated. Repeat for all the other handfuls of flowers.
  • Once you have a nice rich color, strain out the soggy flowers, and return the colored liquid to the jar. Refrigerate until ready to work with your eggs.
  • If you have only small collections of flowers daily, you can either keep adding them to a refrigerated jar with a little water until you have a rich enough color [on the final addition, add some very hot water to finish the color extraction process]. Alternatively, you can set them out to dry and prepare the tea in one go.

Steep the eggs

  • Lay out your jars of colored teas. Decide what combinations of alum and color modifiers you want to add to each.
  • Use 1 teaspoon alum per jar AND/OR 1 tablespoon of liquid modifiers (vinegar, lime juice) OR 1 teaspoon of any of the powders (citric acid, cream of tartar, tartaric acid). Mix well.
  • Gently add 1-2 boiled and unpeeled eggs to each jar. Refrigerate overnight.
  • The next morning, gently remove each egg and lay on a wire drying rack. If you’re satisfied with the coloration, you can stop here.
  • Alternatively, return the eggs to their respective jars, and allow to steep again for up to an additional 12 hours.
  • Remove the eggs gently and dry completely on a wire rack.