Colouring Easter Eggs

Although many Pennsylvania Dutch color their Easter eggs with commercial dyes, some still use traditional methods. To get different colors, they boil the eggs with various vegetables and roots. Alder catkins and hickory bark produce yellow, madder root produces light red, and coffee and walnut hulls produce light brown. Another method used to color eggs was unique: calico or chintz was tightly tied around each egg, and the eggs were then boiled in their “jackets,” transferring the colorful patterns to the eggshells.

Kutztown, Pennsylvania · United States