I've never tried using swiss chard for natural easter egg dyes, but it sounds promising. I use yellow onion skins, red cabbage, etc. for dyes (with cider vinegar) and the results are lovely pastels.
I decided on one thing I am NOT going to grow next year – red Swiss chard.
It is beautiful to grow, and pretty when harvested. However, I just made a spinach dip substituting red Swiss chard. I now have a beautiful pink and green dip. My husband finds pink food off putting, so he doesn’t like that and didn’t care for the pink risotto either.
I blanched and froze the red leaves last summer. Apparently blanching it didn’t get out enough of the red coloring. I think I’ll just go back to the green stuff next year. It seems to grow a little easier, the leaves get bigger, and the bugs don’t seem to like it quite as much. And I don’t have to worry about creating pink food :-)
I've never tried using swiss chard for natural easter egg dyes, but it sounds promising. I use yellow onion skins, red cabbage, etc. for dyes (with cider vinegar) and the results are lovely pastels.