Photo courtesy of AnnaKika at Flickr.com.
If you’re the (hand) crafty type, here’s an excellent way to combine organic gardening and green living: by growing your own herbal dyes. You see, back in the good old days, most dyes were derived from plants; it’s only been a few decades since we abandoned most of them in favor of brighter petrochemical dyes.
If you’re looking for a nice, delicate green, try spinach leaves or plain old grass. You can achieve a pink hue using strawberries, cherries, or even raspberries. Various reds can be derived from red onion skins, dandelion roots, rose hips, and (perhaps unsurprisingly) beets. If you prefer blue or purple, you can experiment with red cabbage, elderberries, and blueberries. Walnut hulls, coffee grounds, and tea will impart browns, while for golden-yellow you’ll need to look to yellow onion skins.
Of course, you’ll need to boil the appropriate material in water to create the color; the dregs can then be tossed on the compost heap (try that with a petrochemical dye). Incidentally, these aren’t just good choices for fabric dyes; they all make great Easter egg colorings, too. Not only are they organic, they’re non-toxic to people and pets.
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