Brothers
Kanoa and Kalei Fujita of O'Fallon, MO, had colored Easter
eggs before with packaged, store-bought dyes.
They'd even packed bits of candy in hollow plastic eggs
to use for Easter egg hunts.
But, this year, they tried something different. They dyed
their eggs with natural dyes made from such things as onion
skins, red cabbage and household spices such as tumeric.
Kanoa
(l) and Kalei Fujita |
On the day before Easter last month, Kanoa and Kalei were
in a class with other kids at the Busch Conservation Area
in St. Charles County. The object was to learn how to make
dyes using only natural ingredients.
They brought along their own eggs so they could practice
making the colored eggs.
They even got an Easter Egg bread recipe so they could
make an unusual holiday breakfast treat. The bread was baked
in a braided form so the colored eggs fit into holes in
the bread.
Thirteen-year-old Kanoa and 15-year-old Kalei each dyed
four eggs using homemade blue, purple, green and orange
dyes. The blue dye came from boiling red cabbage.
The purple, green and orange dyes required mixing different
ingredients since they weren't primary colors. For instance,
to get the green they had to mix turmeric with blueberry
juice. The ingredients used alone would have made yellow
and blue.
Ellie
Simms |
Eleven-year-old Ellie Simms of Wentzville said her favorite
color was robin's egg blue. For that she used the red cabbage
dye. If she wanted a darker blue, she'd have used blueberry
juice.
The 5th grader said her usual Easter Sunday started with
going to church. Then, when the family got home, she would
get an Easter gift.
Ellie said this was her first time trying to dye her own
eggs. "My dad would dye the eggs when I was littler," she
said.
Her egg dye choices at the class were blue, green, yellow
and purple.
Sophia
(l) and Allison Welter |
Sisters Allison and Sophia Welter of St. Charles also were
on hand for the egg-dyeing class.
They said this was the first time they were doing their
own egg dyeing.
Eighteen-year-old Allison said on previous Easters her
family went to their grandmother's house, where they got
their colored eggs.
Volunteer teacher Gladys Kullman led the class. Most of
the dye recipes were her own as was the Easter Egg bread
recipe.
The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) offers all
sorts of classes at its various locations in the St. Louis
area. (If you'd like to know what classes and events
are offered each month, you can go to www.mdc.mo.gov/areas/St.Louis.)
But, Ms. Kullman's pre-Easter egg-dyeing class wasn't
one offered to the general public. All of the attendees
were affiliated with one of the St. Louis-area Children
of the American Revolution (CAR) chapter.
If groups are large enough, they can arrange for separate
classes. Many homeschooler groups arrange for members-only
classes.
(To check on such classes, you can call media specialist
Dan Zarlenga at Busch. His number is (636) 300-1953,
ext. 235)
The Easter Egg decorating class was mostly a hands-on
activity.
There was a small kitchen just off the classroom. That's
where about half of the kids and their parents went to start
cooking the onion skins and red cabbage to get the liquid
dye out.
The rest of the kids started putting their eggs in the
juice that came from canned blueberries and beets.
Actually, Ms. Kullman pointed out that juice from canned
beets produced as pink color on the eggs. But, if you cooked
raw beets, that juice produced a brownish pink color.
One thing about dyeing eggs with natural dyes is that it
takes patience. The natural dyes don't color the eggs as
quickly as packaged dyes. And the colors are softer, more
like pastels, than artificial dyes.
Ms. Kullman also told the kids how to hard-boil eggs properly.
Using a steel, glass or enamel pot, you put the raw eggs
into the pot and fill the pot with cold water until it is
one inch over the eggs. Then, you turn on the heat to bring
the water to a boil.
After the water is boiling, you remove the covered pot
from the heat. Then, let the eggs cook in the hot water
for 25 minutes.
You then remove the eggs and pour cold water over them.
This helps make the hard-boiled eggs easier to peel.
Not all of the kids were active in outdoor or conservation
activities.
The Fujita brothers said they didn't do many things in
the outdoors.
Ellie Simms said she has taken tae kwon do lessons for
5½ years. She recently received her black belt, which denotes
her level of skill.
Allison Welter said her family comes to a lot of the conservation
classes. They also do a lot of fishing, mostly at the Mark
Twain Lake in northern Missouri.
Allison also said she's also visited 46 of the 50 states.
"I still need to get to Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and Alaska.
We hope to get to those other four this year," she said.
The family started visiting different states before Sophia
was born so she hasn't been in as many as her older sister.
She's working on her own 50-50 list.
